Cielo, Rancho Santa Fe, CA

Up a winding drive from Del Dios Highway, Cielo is a guard-gated hillside community on the eastern side of Rancho Santa Fe. It climbs the slopes between the Covenant and Lake Hodges, with Elfin Forest over the ridge to the north, and most of its streets look out over open canyon country. Homes here are large custom and semi-custom estates spread over ridgelines and knolls, many with long views toward the ocean, the inland mountains or the islands offshore. The county approved the plan in 1981, and building has gone on in phases ever since, so finished estates and empty homesites still share some streets. Neighborhood collections such as Estancia offer newer homes on slightly smaller sites. Cielo keeps its own amenities behind the gate. Club Cielo has a pool, tennis courts and a fitness room, and Park Cielo adds a picnic pavilion, a sports field and a climbing wall. For bigger hikes, the Del Dios Highlands Preserve ties into the community's own trails, the Elfin Forest Recreational Reserve is a short drive north, and the trailhead by the produce stand across the highway leads into the Del Dios Gorge along the San Dieguito River. Coffee and casual meals are close. Cielo Village, the shopping center built like a northern Italian hill town just outside the gate, has a stone fountain in its piazza. Invita Cafe there is a family-run Italian coffee bar known for tiramisu lattes, and Goli Pizza pairs specialty pies with a martini bar and the game on TV. Paradise Produce Market down Del Dios Highway sells fruit and vegetables, and the big grocery runs go to 4S Commons, where Ralphs and Jimbo's anchor the center. Getting anywhere means Del Dios Highway. It runs west toward the Rancho Santa Fe village and east past the Lake Hodges dam toward Escondido and Interstate 15. Distance is what you give up. Even a quick errand starts with the gate and the highway, and the nearest supermarket is several miles off. From the upper streets on a clear evening, the lights of the coast and the dark sweep of the lake show up in the same view.