Manzanita Gathering Place

02/03/2026

The Manzanita Gathering Place is the main trailhead to the City Heights Canyons Loop Trail and is located at the entrance to Manzanita Canyon. See this shared post about a community meeting organized by San Diego Canyonlands next Saturday, February 7, at the Ocean Discovery Institute Living Lab, across the canyon from the Manzanita Gathering Place about their Hydrology Project in Manzanita Canyon.

01/26/2026

Today was a perfect sunny day in San Diego to pull weeds at the Manzanita Gathering Place, one of many gathering places built around the world with oversight from the Pomegranate Foundation out of Seattle and our local ARTS (A Reason To Survive) organization, funding from Rokenbok, and about 200 community members who participated in the four-day build. The ground was still wet enough from the recent rain to make it easy to pull the weeds up by the root but not muddy at all. Neighbor Cindy Lapio and I spent about three hours tackling the weeds ead feeling so lucky to be gardening in January in San Diego. 🌞🌻🌺🌴

12/29/2025

Yesterday was the last Canyons Kid's Club in 2025. We met at the Manzanita Gathering Place and hiked through Manzanita Canyon to Devil's Cave at the opposite end of the canyon and took the steps out of the canyon to Azalea Community Park where the kids enjoyed some play time at the Tot Lot.
Thanks to neighbor, Erick Salgado for organizing this weekly event to introduce our little ones and their young parents to our beautiful neighborhood canyons!

11/20/2025

Our San Diego Park and Rec Open Space Rangers made this YouTube video (link below) about our biggest neighborhood canyon, Manzanita Canyon about 4 years ago. The Manzanita Gathering Place is the main trailhead for the City Heights Canyons Loop Trail. We, the neighbors, have been working on the restoration of our biggest canyon since 1981. Fortunately, San Diego Canyonlands (which was formed in 2008) chose Manzanita Canyon as one of their ongoing restoration projects. Then Ocean Discovery Institute became a partner to SDCL and our community years before opening their fabulous Living Lab at the entrance to Manzanita Canyon in 2018. Manzanita Canyon is about a mile long and is shared by the Azalea Park Neighborhood to the south and the South Castle Neighborhood the north. San Diego's urban wilderness areas are incredible spaces that deserve our ongoing stewardship. Check out the video and then be sure and hike the canyon.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?

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11/08/2025

https://share.icloud.com/photos/01a67xLQrcmgF4MeoSqxO7tcQ

1 Video

10/15/2025

The family that lives next to the Manzanita Gathering Place provides the ongoing maintenance to keep this special spot nice for everyone to enjoy.

09/22/2025

These are some of the neighbors who look after the Manzanita Gathering Place.

09/05/2025

We will meet at the Manzanita Gathering Place for the Azalea Park Neighborhood Association meeting on Tuesday, September 9, 6:30 to 7:30pm.

02/08/2025

The coffee is made! Come to the Manzanita Gathering Place and grab a cup at Burly and the Bean's coffee pop-up this morning. Next to 4358 Manzanita Dr.

02/07/2025

Our good friends Justin and Vanessa Boone of our former Burly and the Bean Coffee spot are back in town.
Tomorrow, Saturday, February 8, they will be doing a COFFEE POP-UP by donation only at 10:00am at the Manzanita Gathering Place. (That’s next to 4358 Manzanita Dr.)
I was asked to bring Project CLEAN grabbers and buckets so we can meet up and do some trash pick-up as well.
Hope to see you there!

08/23/2024

I Love A Clean San Diego scheduled a "Sunset Sweep" cleanup at the Manzanita Gathering Place today from 3 to 5pm. Good friends and Terry Hoskins, Robert Walters, Emil England joined the fray along with our D9 Rep Francisco Peralta Vargas and several wonderful folks from outside the area who love our city. ILACSD's Julia and Chanelle facilitated the event and weighed all the trash and recyclables that were collected.