The Cabrillo National Monument: Where San Diego Actually Started (And Why You Should Care)
Perched at the southern tip of the Point Loma peninsula: Cabrillo National Monument overlooks the entrance to San Diego Bay, downtown skyscrapers, Coronado, and the open Pacific. Drive south along the ridgeline of Point Loma past Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, where thousands of white marble headstones stand in silent rows against the Pacific horizon, and the road terminates at the wind-scoured southern tip of the peninsula. Step out of your car and walk to the bluff edge: in a single 360-degree sweep, you take in the glittering glass towers of downtown San Diego, the naval flight decks of North Island, the curve of Coronado, the distant peaks of Mexico’s Coronado Islands, and the vast, cobalt Pacific Ocean. This is Cabrillo National Monument —the exact geographical point where recorded European history on the West Coast of the United States began. Beyond its jaw-dropping views, this 160-acre national park unit packs five centuries of maritime exploration, an iconic lighth...