Elfin Forest-Harmony Grove, CA

Elfin Forest-Harmony Grove is a rural stretch of inland North County, a pair of foothill valleys along Escondido Creek between San Marcos, Escondido, Olivenhain and Rancho Santa Fe. The creek starts below Lake Wohlford and empties into San Elijo Lagoon at the coast, and both communities grew up along its banks. Elfin Forest, the western valley, is the wilder of the two, with ranch houses and custom homes scattered over chaparral hills and horses kept on many properties. Harmony Grove, upstream to the northeast, mixes older groves and horse lots with Harmony Grove Village, a newer planned neighborhood of several hundred homes, its own parks and paths for walkers and riders. The Harmony Grove Spiritual Association has kept its grounds in the valley for about a century, a reminder of how long people have come here for quiet. Homes overall run large and spread out. Outside the Village there are no tract grids, and houses sit back behind fences and long drives on parcels with room for barns or orchards. Between the two valleys, on Harmony Grove Road, the Elfin Forest Recreational Reserve draws hikers from across the county. Owned by the regional water authority and run by Olivenhain Municipal Water District, it covers about 784 acres with six overlooks, and its trails continue toward Olivenhain Reservoir and Lake Hodges for anyone with the legs for a long day. There is no commercial street in either valley. Dinners and coffee mean a drive over to the San Elijo Hills plaza, where a Lost Abbey tasting room pours on the patio, or to downtown Escondido and its Grand Avenue restaurants. Highway 78 is the main route to the rest of the region, with Interstate 15 a few miles east. Fire weather is the shared worry. The brush that gives the area its name burns readily, roads are narrow, and the reserve shuts its gates on Red Flag days. On weekend mornings the reserve lot fills with cars from all over the county, and by late afternoon the creek road through Elfin Forest-Harmony Grove belongs to riders and their horses again.