Piece of the Rock : Horizons Expanding at the New Volcan Mountain Preserve

The doe’s eyes and ears locked onto me from a range of about 100 feet. I froze in the crunchy live-oak leaf litter, stifling the deep breaths that come from exertion, while she stood motionless, long ears titled upward and cupped in my direction.

After a two-minute standoff, a pesky fly in my face drew my hand upward, and the doe vanished within seconds, bounding on pogo-stick legs down a grassy slope.

San Diego County’s newly opened Volcan Mountain Wilderness Preserve may help ensure the survival of this curious deer and many other creatures--mountain lions, golden eagles and endangered spotted owls--that inhabit the mountains north of Julian. Once slated for an upscale housing development, the 220 hillside acres of the present preserve were purchased by the county about two years ago.

This year the boundaries are being expanded to encompass another 600 acres. The new addition will include part of Volcan Mountain’s mile-high summit ridge, which offers ocean-to-desert views that are hard to match anywhere else in the county.

The 600-acre purchase is a small step in what park planners and environmentalists hope will be the acquisition of the entire 11,000-acre Rutherford Ranch--a privately owned property blanketing most of Volcan Mountain. Richly endowed with dense forests, spring-fed ponds and diverse wildlife, the ranch could become the crown jewel in the emerging, 50-mile-long open space corridor known as the San Dieguito River Park. The Rutherford family, which hopes to sell the ranch either piecemeal or whole to pay off inheritance taxes, is willing to give public agencies first crack at acquiring it.

Volcan Mountain, probably named by early Spanish or Mexican travelers for its dubious resemblance to a volcano, is really a “fault-block” mountain range, squeezed upward by earth movements along the Elsinore and Earthquake Valley faults.

This geologic relationships can be sensed as you drive north on Farmer Road from Julian’s town center. You’ll see Volcan Mountain’s slopes rising abruptly from a rolling plain dotted with apple orchards. Although you won’t recognize any visible fault trace at this point, the Elsinore Fault does run right along the mountain’s base. Beyond the Julian area, the fault stretches northwest to Lake Henshaw and beyond to Riverside County’s Lake Elsinore. It also stretches southeast, knifing down Banner Canyon (where the fault trace is visible low on the canyon’s northeast slope as seen from Banner Grade) toward Agua Caliente Springs in the southern Anza-Borrego Desert. Considered a major offshoot of the great San Andreas Fault, the Elsinore Fault could easily produce a jolt nearly as powerful as the recent Landers quake.

A small sign, just north of Wynola Road along Farmer Road (about 2 1/2 miles north of Julian), marks the preserve entrance. Park alongside Farmer Road and walk east along a dirt access road. After one-quarter mile, you’ll come to a carved entry structure designed by noted Julian artist James Hubbell, and stonework--still under construction. The stonework includes an open-air “kiva,” with an artistic compass rose embedded in the floor, to be used during interpretive programs.

Just beyond this “formal” entrance, you follow an old dirt road north, sharply uphill. You soon round a horseshoe bend to the right and continue climbing in earnest along a rounded ridgeline leading toward the Volcan Mountain crest.

Along the ridge, wind-rippled expanses of grassland alternate with dense copses of live oak and black oak, the latter soon to flush a golden yellow in response to autumn’s chilly nights. The rust-red bark of the many manzanita shrubs along the way is peeling now, revealing a green undercoat. These colorful shrubs are bearing multitudes of manzanitas (“little apples” in Spanish)--ripe, reddish brown berries that look and taste a bit like the apples ready for picking down in the valley below.

As you climb, the view expands to include the town site of Julian, its “suburb” of Whispering Pines, the dusky Cuyamaca Mountains to the south, and maybe even the ocean--provided brisk winds have cleansed the atmosphere.

As of this writing, a locked gate at 1 1/2 miles (and 900 feet higher than where you started) blocks further progress up the dirt road. When the property above this point opens to the public, you will be able to reach Volcan peak (elevation 5353 feet) by walking an additional 3/4 mile.

For more information about the Volcan Mountain preserve, call the San Diego County Parks and Recreation Department at 694-3049.