Hike of the week: Spot coastal birds and dolphins in the San Diego Bay at Harbor Island Park

Early this week, I was perched on a rock at Point San Bruno Park along the San Francisco Bay, watching planes land and take off from the San Francisco International Airport.

I was killing some time before my own flight home, back to San Diego, and I was charmed by the view of the blustery bay and the park itself, a spot of nature tucked behind commercial and business buildings.

As I sat, I thought about San Diego’s own bay and natural spaces near our airport. There’s such a juxtaposition between the peace of the bay and the traffic and movement of an airport. Even a short distance from the chaos, you can get some room to breathe, take a moment to stop moving and just be. I have to think there’s a life lesson in here for myself, and maybe you, too, about finding stillness in the tumult.

So the next day, I went to Harbor Island Park in San Diego to chase that feeling again. The park is on Harbor Island — which is technically a peninsula made from harbor dredging spoils in the 1960s — located south of the San Diego International Airport. It offers a sidewalk path for walking and running that travels along the San Diego Bay, along with a route for cyclists.

I walked just over 2.5 miles on the path for this week’s column. While it wasn’t a hike, this is a nice option for a rainy day or if you want some exercise with a quintessential San Diego view — or before or after a long flight.

There’s no true starting point for the walk, but I chose to park in a lot just east of the Hilton Hotel on Harbor Island. You can also park anywhere along Harbor Island Drive. I began walking east with downtown San Diego and the San Diego-Coronado Bridge ahead of me. Across the bay is Coronado and its naval base, so I did hear the occasional chop of a helicopter.

I turned around when the sidewalk ended around the 1-mile mark and continued west to the other end of the park. Along the way, there are several benches to rest and enjoy the scenery. I even saw someone setting up an engagement proposal on the park’s green grass, though I didn’t stick around to see if they said “yes.”

Visitors can find information signs about the San Diego Bay’s wildlife near the parking lot where I began, including birds like the surf scooter and western grebe — both of which I saw on my walk.

But I was also lucky enough to see a pod of dolphins swimming in the bay as I headed west toward the sunset over Cabrillo National Monument.