Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve
Coastal bluff-top launch site where pilots have soared engineless off three-hundred-fifty-foot sandstone cliffs since the nineteen twenties.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve in San Diego opens in nineteen thirty-six with pilot Woodly Brown attempting a launch nobody had pulled off from these bluffs before. It reaches back six years earlier to Charles Lindbergh riding the same sea breeze along the coast, and follows the cliffs through the following decade as pilot John Robinson set national soaring records and the bluff hosted its first multi-day glider meet in nineteen thirty-nine. You'll hear how a stretch of coastline earned the nickname the Kitty Hawk of the West. Stand at the rail and watch for the same onshore wind still bouncing off the sandstone below.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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