Mount Helix, Casa de Oro-Mount Helix, CA

Mount Helix rises east of La Mesa, and the peak gives the neighborhood both its name and its skyline. It makes up the northern and western half of unincorporated Casa de Oro-Mount Helix, where a stone cross on the summit shows for miles and most streets here wind and switch back around granite boulders on the way up. Homes on the slopes are mostly custom houses on big, irregular lots, many set into the rock with gardens left partly wild. You'll see Spanish and Mediterranean Revival houses, rambling ranch homes and midcentury modern designs, many with long views south over Spring Valley toward the mountains near the border. Lower down, near Campo Road, the pattern tightens into smaller ranch houses and apartment complexes. Mt. Helix Park sits at the top. It opened in 1925 with an amphitheater dug into the hillside just east of and below the cross, and a steep road lined with hand-laid stone walls from the Depression era leads up to it. A dirt nature trail wraps the far side of the summit, and native trees planted around the stone seats keep the sightlines open. Eucalyptus Park on Bancroft Drive is the flat, grassy option. Campo Road along the southern edge is the old Casa de Oro shopping street. Valley Farm Market has been run by the same family since 1956 and is known for its meat counter, with marinated carne asada and teriyaki ribs. Gladly Coffee is a drive-thru whose Dirty Harry latte gets its flavor from real butter and brown sugar with a pinch of sea salt. Sunrise Deli, painted pink and green with a deck out front, serves heaping breakfast plates from 7:30 every morning. Daily errands happen on that stretch too. Albertsons and Grocery Outlet sit side by side with the Casa de Oro branch of the county library, and Grossmont Center with its Trader Joe's is just over the line in La Mesa. Highway 94 runs west toward downtown San Diego, Highway 125 is just to the west, and Interstate 8 is close to the north. Campo Road itself shows its age, with storefronts that could use some care and parking lots between them. The County has a revitalization plan meant to make it easier to walk, though the work is still in design. On a clear evening, the drive home up Mount Helix feels like leaving the county below.