About Cleveland National Forest
Located northeast of San Diego is Cleveland National Forest. The area offers trails for a variety of activities: hiking, biking, 4 wheel vehicles, and horseback riding. The viewpoints along Sunrise Highways are some of the Aztec Adventures Guides’ favorite stops. The National Forest has plenty of places to camp for a weekend getaway. Pro tip: check the weather and go when it's clear skies to view the milky way and possibly get a glimpse of shooting stars.
24 miles from SDSU Main Campus to the westward park boundary
64 miles from SDSU Imperial Valley Campus to the southeast park boundary
Land Acknowledgement
As you recreate responsibly in these areas we ask that you acknowledge the land that you are on is the traditional territory and homelands of indigenous people. Much of the central, southern, and east San Diego County is Kumeyaay territory; while most of North County is Luiseño and Payómkawichum traditional homelands. The surrounding areas include land of the Cahuilla, Cupeño, Acjachemen, Kizh, and Tongva people to the north, the Cocopah people to the east, and Paipai people to the south.
For more information on Land Acknowledgements, visit the Native Governance Center. To learn more about native land in your area, visit Native Land. To read San Diego State Universities Land Acknowledgement please visit The Division of Student Affairs and Campus Diversity: Tribal Liaison.
We stand upon a land that carries the footsteps of millennia of Kumeyaay people. They are a people whose traditional lifeways intertwine with a worldview of earth and sky in a community of living beings. This land is part of a relationship that has nourished, healed, protected and embraced the Kumeyaay people to the present day. It is part of a world view founded in the harmony of the cycles of the sky and balance in the forces of life. For the Kumeyaay, red and black represent the balance of those forces that provide for harmony within our bodies as well as the world around us. As students, faculty, staff and alumni of San Diego State University we acknowledge this legacy from the Kumeyaay. We promote this balance in life as we pursue our goals of knowledge and understanding. We find inspiration in the Kumeyaay spirit to open our minds and hearts. It is the legacy of the red and black. It is the land of the Kumeyaay.
For millennia, the Kumeyaay people have been a part of this land. This land has nourished, healed, protected and embraced them for many generations in a relationship of balance and harmony. As members of the San Diego State community we acknowledge this legacy. We promote this balance and harmony. We find inspiration from this land; the land of the Kumeyaay.
