Harbison Canyon, CA

Harbison Canyon is a rural East County community of San Diego County that stretches from Interstate 8 and Olde Highway 80 south into a wooded canyon, between El Cajon's eastern edge and Alpine. To the south, Harbison Canyon Road drops out to Dehesa Road and the Sweetwater River valley, near the Sycuan reservation. People have lived along this creek for a very long time, and Kumeyaay artifacts have turned up near its banks. The modern story has a sharper turn. After the 2003 Cedar Fire took most of the houses in the canyon, groups including the New York Says Thank You Foundation and the local Lions Club helped residents rebuild. Housing is almost entirely single-family and widely spaced, from homes along the creek to houses set on ridges with views back toward Crest. Lots tend to be individual parcels rather than tract streets, reached by winding county roads. Flinn Springs County Park, on Olde Highway 80 at the north end, is the big outdoor draw. Its roughly 40 acres hold an old oak grove, a creek that runs all year with a small waterfall, campsites, a playground and a gazebo that books up for weddings, and one trail climbs into the neighboring Crestridge reserve. Olde Highway 80 is also where the evenings happen. Renegade, a country western bar on the old highway, runs line dancing lessons four nights a week and live country bands on Friday and Saturday. Just past the community line in Flinn Springs, Grand Ole BBQ serves smoked meats and cold beer, often with live music in its indoor and outdoor rooms. Most shopping happens in El Cajon, Lakeside or Alpine, and Interstate 8 connects all three. The catch is that almost nothing, from a pharmacy to a full supermarket, sits inside Harbison Canyon itself, so errands get bundled into planned trips. The old highway, the creek and the oaks give the canyon a backcountry feel that is hard to find this close to El Cajon.