Discover the La Jolla most visitors overlook, from blufftop trails to buried architectural history.
Everyone knows La Jolla’s marquee attractions, but ask a longtime local, and you’ll hear about a different side of the neighborhood. This curated list features places that rarely make the guidebooks yet capture La Jolla’s personality and history. From sandstone bluffs to storybook bridges, here are some of our favorite hidden gems in San Diego.
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La Jolla’s Troll Bridges
Kearsarge Road and Puente Drive
In the 1920s, William French Ludington—son of one of La Jolla’s early families—built two stone arch bridges to access steep parcels on Mount Soledad. Hand-laid stone, graceful curves, and a canopy of overgrown greenery give them a fairytale feel. Children still call out for trolls while walking through, just as generations before them did.
Gravity Hill
West Muirlands Drive near the intersection with Nautilus Street
At first glance, Gravity Hill looks just like any ordinary street. But locals know better. If you line up your right rear tire with the telephone pole marked by three yellow stripes on West Muirlands Drive and put your car in neutral, your car will appear to roll uphill.
The illusion is a quirky optical trick that has puzzled and delighted residents for decades. Still unmarked, Gravity Hill remains a San Diego hidden gem and a quirky piece of neighborhood lore.
The Munchkin House
7474 Hillside Drive
Built in 1935 by architect Cliff May, this small red-tile-roofed home off Hillside Drive is often mistaken for something out of a fairytale. Its low-slung roof and below-grade construction makes it appear smaller than it is—a visual effect that has sparked decades of urban legend.
Although long rumored to have ties to The Wizard of Oz, the connection is myth. Still, the home is one of La Jolla’s most enduring curiosities. Only one of the original four remains.
Saigon Trail (Ho Chi Minh Trail)
Trailhead near the corner of La Jolla Farms Road and Charmel Lane
Cut decades ago by UC San Diego surfers heading to Black’s Beach, the Saigon Trail drops steeply through eroded sandstone, narrow ledges, and makeshift steps. Ropes are in places for balance. It only runs for half a mile, but it’s short and demanding.
Rain can quickly reshape the route, and loose sand keeps footing tricky. Those who tackle it earn a dramatic approach to Black’s Beach, as well as one of La Jolla’s most secret spots just down the shoreline.
Mushroom House
Below the cliffs near Blacks Beach, accessed from the Salk Institute area
Originally built in the 1960s for Sam Bell of Bell’s Potato Chips, the Mushroom House rests on a concrete pedestal just above the sand. Architect Dan Naegle designed the home, which features a 180-degree view of the Pacific Ocean. Visitors can access this one-of-a-kind house via the Saigon Trail.
While unoccupied today, it remains privately owned—locals say by an academic or philanthropist—and is best admired from the beach or the bluffs above.
The Mushroom House is one of the hidden gems in San Diego.
Sunny Jim’s Sea Cave
1325 Coast Blvd, inside The Cave Store
Though Sunny Jim’s is the only sea cave in California that can be entered by land, it’s also one of the more accessible hidden gems in San Diego . From inside The Cave Store, visitors descend a staircase and pass through a narrow tunnel—carved in 1902—to reach its ocean-facing opening. The entrance’s cartoonish outline inspired its name, said to resemble a 19th-century British cereal mascot.
Local legend claims that the cave served as a smuggling route for contraband during Prohibition. Today, it’s a quick 15-20 minute, self-guided tour that locals share with guests, with kids especially loving the echo and sense of adventure.
Coast Walk Trail
Trailhead at 1298 Coast Blvd, just above La Jolla Cove
The Coast Walk Trail has guided footsteps for millennia, first by the Kumeyaay people, then formalized in the early 1900s to protect public shoreline access. But though it earned its historic asset status, this third-mile bluff still remains as one of La Jolla’s secret spots.
From Coast Boulevard, the trail heads east to Goldfish Point, skirting sandstone cliffs and sea caves. You can take a self-guided history tour by following this map and reading the notes of the Friends of Coast Walk Trail.
Tombstones Dive Spot
North end of La Jolla Cove, near Coast Boulevard and Girard Avenue
Tombstones is named for the flat rock slabs on the sea floor. Dropping to 30-40 feet, it offers kelp forests, rocky crevices, and marine life, from lobsters and sheephead to the occasional leopard shark.
Local divers have visited since the 1960s, with late summer and early fall bringing the warmest, clearest conditions. Access is at low tide via a slippery rock scramble, keeping this site the realm of seasoned divers and spearfishers—truly one of San Diego’s hidden gems.
Scripps Coastal Meander Trail
Trail access near La Jolla Shores Drive, north of UC San Diego
This mile-long bluff trail—part of the California Coastal Trail—runs above Scripps Institute of Oceanography. Founded in 1903, Scripps has led global marine research for over a century, and interpretative signs along the route share insights into coastal ecology and ocean science.
The path links La Jolla Shores with the Birch Aquarium, passing through native habitats, research buildings, and overlooking where you can watch pelicans ride the updrafts.
View Point
Beside the former home of Buzzie Bavasi
Unmarked and only known among locals, this is certainly a La Jolla secret spot. Locals know this bluff overlook simply as “View Point,” a quiet area beside the former La Jolla home of baseball executive Emil “Buzzie” Bavasi. Best remembered as the longtime general manager of the Brooklyn and LA Dodgers, Bavasi played a role in shaping modern baseball.
Yogi Berra once visited Bavasi here and, gazing at the Pacific, quipped: “Nice view, Buzz! What IS all that water out there?” Today, the spot remains a cherished lookout, offering the same sweeping ocean perspective that impressed legends of the game.
Box of Summer
Above Boomer Beach
On the bluff above Boomer Beach, the weathered sea-green “Box of Summer” serves as both a lifeguard tool and a memorial. Unlocked each summer, it holds an emergency phone and bears etched words like spray, waves, spirit, and adrenaline—a poetic tribute to the lifeguard’s code and the ocean’s pull.
That’s because the Box of Summer also honors David C. Freeman, a respected body surfer and lifeguard who drowned here. His name is hidden in an acrostic beneath the word “LIFEGUARD,” a subtle marker of service and sacrifice.
SEE THE REAL LA JOLLA
You don’t have to be born here to know La Jolla’s quiet corners. You just need a little curiosity and the right guide. The same is true for finding the right home here: with expert insight, those rare opportunities in the real estate market reveal themselves.
For more than 40 years, Greg Noonan & Associates has matched clients with La Jolla’s most exceptional homes. When it’s time to buy or sell, trust the team who knows every vantage point, every street, and every opportunity this market offers.
Call 858.400.8770858.400.8770 or email us today to begin your search with La Jolla’s most trusted real estate advocates.
