Cuyamaca

Stonewall Peak (right) and Little Stonewall (left) with Lake Cuyamaca in foreground.

Lake Cuyamaca

Every summer when I was a child we camped in the Cuyamaca Mountains, east of San Diego. I took the kids to Lake Cuyamaca a couple of weeks ago to meet a Brave Writer family from the Shakespeare class I taught in May. I love these mountains that I've climbed on foot and on horseback, the lake that I've hiked around and rose horses around, and Fletcher Island in the center of the lake, the scene of many picnics over the years. My mother camped here throughout her childhood, as did I, and my kids camped here before the fires of 2003 swept through here, decimating the trees and several of the campgrounds, including Los Caballos, our horse camp. Despite the fire damage, it's still a gorgeous place, made sweeter by the generations of memories that reside here.