Alpine, CA

Alpine sits in the foothills of the Cuyamaca Mountains along Interstate 8, an unincorporated San Diego County community roughly 30 miles from downtown. El Cajon lies down the grade to the west, and the Cleveland National Forest wraps around most of the rest. The Kumeyaay lived in these hills for thousands of years, the Viejas and Sycuan reservations border the community, and the Viejas band keeps its headquarters here. The town name came in the 1880s from a settler who thought the scenery looked like Switzerland. Houses spread over a wide area rather than packing into one grid. A modest core near the freeway gives way to ranch properties and custom homes on hilltops and in small valleys, many with long views toward the mountains. The outdoors runs to peaks and water. Viejas Mountain rises a few miles north of town in the national forest, and the trail to its 4,189-foot summit gains close to 1,500 feet in about a mile and a half each way. Just south of town at Loveland Reservoir, a shaded half-mile path drops to the shore, where people fish for catfish, bluegill and crappie and watch for herons. Dogs stay home on that one. Brewing has deep roots here, since Alpine Beer Co. started in town in 2002. Its founding family now pours as Mcilhenney Brewing at the original spot on Alpine Boulevard, and Hess Brewing has taken over the old pub on Tavern Road, where pizzas come out to a patio set around a fire pit. Daily needs are covered in town, and the freeway handles the rest. Interstate 8 runs west to El Cajon, La Mesa and San Diego and east toward the desert, and nearly everyone drives. Distance is the price of the setting, because big shopping trips and most jobs sit well down the hill, and the commute adds up over a week. Alpine reads first as a mountain town and only second as a place within commuting range of a big city.