Hidden Meadows, Hidden Meadows, CA

Hidden Meadows is an unincorporated hilltop community just north of Escondido in San Diego County, and most of its mail carries an Escondido address. The streets climb a mesa above the valley, so the defining feature is the view. On a clear evening, many homes look across ridgelines and valleys toward the Pacific, and some can pick out Catalina Island at sunset. Housing is a patchwork. Mobile homes from the late 1960s share the hills with custom estates, duplexes and townhomes, and a surprising number of empty building lots still wait for a house, some under a quarter acre and some close to nine acres. Rimrock Estates, behind a guard gate on a hilltop, holds big custom houses that look out to the coast. The Summit at Hidden Meadows is gated too, and Mountain Meadows mixes condos with single-family houses. Several streets back right onto golf fairways. Outdoor life here is mostly the land itself. Yards are big, the roads wind over the slopes, and the golf courses around the mesa supply most of the green. There is no large public park inside the community, so people walk their own streets or drive out for a hike. Food close to home is limited. Meadows Deli Market on Oak Ranch Road is the neighborhood stop for a breakfast sandwich, a torpedo roll or its hot tri-tip sandwich with barbecue sauce, and it keeps basic groceries on the shelves. For a sit-down dinner, the Canyon Grille at the Welk resort on Lawrence Welk Drive serves California-style classics. Daily errands mean the drive down to Escondido, where the supermarkets, pharmacies and gyms are. Interstate 15 is about three miles from the mesa, which keeps Carlsbad and downtown San Diego within commuting range. A car is a given. Up on the mesa, distance is the cost, since even milk is a drive. The hilltop trades that for quiet hills, roomy lots and a sunset that often lands in the ocean you can see from the kitchen.