I met up with some friends Sept. 18th, Saturday morning in Alpine for a hike into a couple areas of the Cleveland National Forest. Our first stop was an oak-studded grassland called Roberts Ranch; privately owned land that was incorporated into the national forest in the late 1990s.
Across the meadow, we came upon the remnants of a century-old ditch designed (but never used) to shunt water from Pine Valley Creek into the San Diego River drainage. We could also see an area of private land that housed what looked like big cats (maybe tigers) behind an extremely large fence in the distance. This 2.5 mile part of the trip took us about an hour and a half.
Here we are parked across from the trail head, along Japatul Valley Road, just south of Interstate 8. 
Starting out, we got to see the rising sun burning off the morning fog.
Although this land is open to the public it is leased for cattle grazing. You might even see a llama or two!
Starting out across the meadow. Hope we don't run into any on'ry bulls...
Reaching the old (and never used) flume built in 1895.
While some headed home afterwards, the rest of us drove on up Sunrise Highway to the trail head for Cottonwood Creek Falls, one of the many secret beauty spots tucked away on San Diego County's public lands.
With our National Forest Adventure Passes displayed on our rigs, we made our way down a narrow, partly overgrown trail that descends beneath power lines. About three-quarters of a mile down, we made a sharp left upstream past some large oaks toward the cascades, which were now in earshot. After a bit of rock scrambling and a few stream crossings, we reached the uppermost fall, where the stream drops ten feet into a deep pool. Much of the stream had slackened and the pools were filled with growths of algae. However, just past the uppermost fall we did find a nice tree-shaded, crystal clear pool that made for a good rest stop and has me wishing I had packed a bathing suit. This hour long hike is just under 2 miles.
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