With so many horse owners getting pushed out into the boonies in California, Bonita is one area that is still horsey, yet only 15 minutes from downtown San Diego.
We are only five to seven miles inland so we always have cool breezes through our valley, which boasts two golf courses, an equestrian show ring, many square miles of San Diego County park land and many more square miles of U.S. Fish & Wildlife land. Bonita has even more square miles of open space preserves maintained by CalTrans, the local water authority, and the local utility company. Each of these preserves has miles of hiking and riding trails, and each features its own pond or reservoir and unique scenic lookout view destination points.



In all, we have over 30 miles of trails in our little community: not counting the many more miles of trails in the U.S. Fish & Wildlife preserve that spreads out farther than the eye can see to the east.
We’d love to see more people with horses move back into the Bonita Highlands. That particular development by Corky McMillan has miles of its own trails weaving through the canyons and ridges between these equestrian-zoned homes, and even features two local arenas for homeowners. Corky’s son rode horses and he named streets horsey things like Snaffle Bit Lane, Hackney Court, Pony Lane, etc. One was even named for his son’s horse, Good Karma. And that’s just one of the many equestrian-zoned neighborhoods in Bonita.
We have a local horse campground, Sweetwater Summit Park, that is the hub for trails in all directions. It features large covered gazebos and a community building and kitchen facilities, and serves as the gathering place for many local trails events.
The Sweetwater Summit Patrol is made up of volunteer hikers, mountain bikers and riders that patrol the trails and work on trail projects each month. We clear brush and repair trails damaged by rain or overgrowth and we have fun doing it!
The local horse club is Bonita Valley Horsemen (BVH) and we hold monthly trail rides either in our area or trailer out to other nice staging areas. BVH has had Trail Trials for many years. These are fun competition over obstacles along a route, with awards to those with the most points and silent auctions to raise funds for trail improvements. This year we hosted a Poker Ride, attracting riders from all over the county, like our Trail Trial does.
The Sunnyside Saddle Club sponsors horse shows at the local arena.
The website, www.BonitaValleyTrails.org is loaded with information about our area and local activity. We’d love to see the horse population bloom back up to its historical highs. At one time we had the highest horse population per capita in the state!