This pic looks back down the roadway leading up to the top of Palomar Mountain. Camping is available at Doane Valley and Cedar Grove campgrounds in Palomar Mountain State Park and at the Palomar Observatory campground. Some of the great hiking trails on the mountain boast views of the Pacific Ocean.
This pic shows a so-called “granary” tree on which every crevice has been filled with acorns for later retrieval as a tasty dinner. The industrious storekeeper responsible for this phenomenon is the Acorn Woodpecker. The largest recorded number of acorns stored in this manner in one tree numbered 50,000. This tree was in the Palomar Observatory parking lot.
The Palomar Observatory’s 200-inch (5.1-meter) Hale Telescope was for decades the largest effective telescope in operation. Owned and operated by the California Institute of Technology, the Observatory is but one of the many things to do on 6,138 foot Palomar Mountain.
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