Travel west for some 48 km along Hwy-76, which branches off Hwy-79 at Morettis Junction, and you’ll reach the small and isolated Pala Mission, now in the heart of the Pala Indian Reservation. Built in 1816 as a branch of Oceanside’s mission – further west on Hwy-76 (The Southern Coast) – the Pala Mission has a run-down, unkempt appearance but some interesting native-painted frescos adorn its chapel walls.

By contrast, the high-tech Palomar Observatory (http://www.astro.caltech.edu/palomar/homepage.html) can also be reached from Hwy-76: take Route S6, which winds its way up Palomar Mountain. The public can’t peer through the observatory’s 200-inch telescope but they can admire the photographs it has produced of distant galaxies, which are displayed here in a museum.