Kumeyaay Solstice Cache

Waiting for the sun to rise

Last Saturday, I returned to another one of my favorite caches, the Kumeyaay Solstice Cache (link). It is one of San Diego's classic caches, placed in 2002 by Team Gecko. As is often the case with geocaches, it was placed to draw attention to a fantastic event that happens here every year on the winter solstice. On that day (plus or minus a day or two), the sun rises over some hills in the distance and appears to be briefly split in half.  A very cool phenomenon that the Kumeyaay indians used as part of a solar calendar. In fact, a set of circular stones was found near here years ago and the site was designated as the Cowles Mountain Observatory.

Winter solstice sunrise

Anyhow, the event happens at about 6:54 am every winter solstice, so in order to see it, you must be at that spot.  This means a pre-dawn hike half way up Cowles Mountain. I've done this a couple of years now, dragging various family members along, and have yet to get a good view of the split sun. Winter in San Diego is often associated with low clouds at dawn, or rain, and it can be quite challenging to get good weather. Saturday's weather was pretty good, so we drove out to the Staging Area at Cowles Mountain at about 5:30 am. We hit the trail at 6, and it took a good 20-30 minutes to get to the right spot. Surprisingly, there were also dozens of other people climbing the trail. I would estimate that 100-200 people were there, from infants to elderly. It was a festive atmosphere as we waited for the sun to peak over the peaks, with laughter and chatter breaking out frequently. As we reached the final minutes, though, it got quiet. Clouds hugged the distant peaks and the sun made it look like the hills were on fire. There was a narrow gap between the distant hills and the increasing cloud cover, and when the sun peaked over the hills, we had a spectacular view. The picture above shows a slight split as the light from the sun illuminates the knob-like feature that creates this effect. This shot is probably 5 seconds after the first appearance of the sun, so the most impressive split would have already happened. (Yes, the sun split phenomenon lasts all of about 4 seconds!) Unfortunately, the cloud cover near the peak obscured the best part of this show. Still, it was awesome and the crowd responded with some sporadic clapping.

Heading back to the trail head under a gorgeous sunrise.

We stayed a few minutes, talked to some geocachers who were also up there, and then began the trek back to the trailhead. If it weren't for the Solstice Cache, I might not know about this special event and I plan on keeping up this emerging holiday tradition. The cache page has a number of viewing tips (remember to NEVER look directly at the sun!) and some great pictures of how the split sun can look under ideal conditions. New pictures are posted each year, and it turned out that Sunday and Monday morning were perfect this year. Even without the perfect split, watching the sun rise on the solstice, at an ancient observatory no less, is incredibly exciting. It may not be Stonehenge, but San Diego's version is still pretty awe-inspiring!