A Lost Treasure in San Diego: The Leo Carillo Ranch

There are some weekends in our family life, where it seems we have nothing at all to do and no one calls the house. No invite anywhere. No phone ringing. Just an average boring weekend. Then, there are those weekends where we have 5 activities all occurring at the same time.

You are go-go-go from dawn to dusk. I think you know what I’m talking about. But with three kids and a busy week, many weekends find us at home just catching up on life: laundry, yard work, science projects, errands.

After a few of those and a few way too busy weekends, my husband usually puts his foot down and announces we are going to go explore our beautiful city.

“Millions of people travel to visit San Diego!” he explains. “We live here and we don’t see enough of it!”

One of these exploratory weekends found us in Carlsbad, at the Leo Carillo Ranch.

This Old World California Ranch was purchased in 1937 by actor and conservationist, Leo Carrillo. It was a retreat for him, from his busy life in Los Angeles. Over time, he acquired more land and expanded the ranch to 2,538 acres.

Today, 27 of those acres belongs to the city of Carlsbad, and the old buildings and ranch house have been renovated. The park is now a historical site, and visitors are welcome to enjoy the park, walk around the grounds and lunch at the picnic tables.

And of course, you can walk among the many peacocks and peahens found roaming freely about the park.

When we visited the ranch, people were preparing for a wedding there. But what stole my kids’ attention were the peacocks.

Everywhere we turned, we found them.

Even a rare albino peacock.

Up on a roof, of all places.

You can learn more about the Leo Carillo Ranch here. And for you out-of-towners, it’s only 7 miles from Legoland.