Valley Center, CA

Valley Center is a big, spread-out farm community in the hills of inland North County, above Escondido and east of Interstate 15. It covers more than 27 square miles at around 1,300 feet, and the tribal lands of the Rincon Band of Luiseño Indians and the San Pasqual Band lie along its eastern side. The place was known as Bear Valley in the 1860s, when California grizzlies still roamed here, and the largest one ever recorded in the state was killed nearby in 1866. The Valley Center History Museum on Cole Grade Road keeps a preserved grizzly on display, along with an old stagecoach that did duty as an ambulance in the Civil War. That western streak still shows every year at the Valley Center Stampede Rodeo over Memorial Day weekend and at the Western Days Parade and Country Fair. There is no single downtown. Shops, restaurants and services sit in clusters along Valley Center Road, Cole Grade Road and Lilac Road. Between those clusters the land opens up into groves, horse ranches and estate parcels, with the planned streets of Park Circle as the one large subdivision. For a meal or a glass of wine, two stops sit out among the farms. Shawii Kitchen, at Native Oaks Golf Club on Woods Valley Road, takes its name from a Kumeyaay word for an acorn mush and serves burgers and wraps to golfers and non-golfers. Pauma Vista Vineyard on Cole Grade Road farms its own Rhône and Spanish grapes and opens a tasting patio Friday through Sunday. Life runs on the car. Escondido is the regular stop for bigger shopping, medical visits and the Sprinter, and Interstate 15 to the west links the area to the rest of the county. Valley View Casino sits just outside the community boundary on Nyemii Pass Road. Those drives are part of the deal in Valley Center, along with distance from coastal jobs. In exchange the community holds on to orchards, rodeo weekends and a grizzly bear in the local museum.