CABRILLO'S LANDING POINT LOMA STILL UNSPOILED, MUCH AS 16TH-CENTURY EXPLORER FOUND IT.

Byline: Eric Noland Travel Editor

SAN DIEGO - A Navy warship glided noiselessly out the mouth of the harbor as a fog horn emitted its mournful blast. A stiff onshore breeze rustled the coastal sage scrub, unleashing its musky scent.

Downtown San Diego was only a short distance away - five miles as the gull flies - but felt infinitely farther.

Here on Point Loma, a long, bony finger of land that crooks around the west edge of the city, geography creates relative isolation, as well as the sense of a separate, distinct community. It's a skinny, north-south peninsula, with the Pacific Ocean on one side, San Diego Bay on the other and land access funneled through a narrow neck.

This is the province of yachtsmen, sport fishermen - and visitors who appreciate an unspoiled coastal world and sweeping views.

The latter, in fact, might be Point Loma's greatest strength. Request a window table at the rotunda-like Bali Hai restaurant on Shelter Island and be mesmerized by the mosaic of downtown's bright lights across the bay, as well as the running lights of the occasional passing boat.

Point Loma's peninsula, meanwhile, is high-humped down its center, and Route 209, which runs along its spine, at intervals offers simultaneous views across both ocean and bay.

At the end of the road is Cabrillo National Monument, and you'll want to fork over the $5-per-carload fee just to wander the grounds and take in a vista that is arguably the finest in the city. It encompasses the San Diego skyline, Coronado, the Jamul Mountains inland, Tijuana and the craggy Islas de Coronado off the Baja California coast.

The first European visitor to Point Loma probably didn't make the arduous climb from the beach to appreciate the panorama. Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo was more interested in finding a suitable harbor as he explored the California coast for Spain in 1542. In late September of that year, he stumbled on the entrance to San Diego Bay and is believed to have landed at Ballast Point, just inside the harbor mouth.

It's occupied by a Navy submarine base today, but you can walk a coastal trail from the national monument visitors center to get close to the site. As you descend the east flank of the headland, you might be intrigued to find yourself in such an untamed natural environment.

It's by design. The park service, which oversees 160 acres here, wants visitors to find a world very similar to the one encountered by Cabrillo and his expedition. To that end, non-native plants are being systematically eradicated and native species introduced.

Along the 2 1/2-mile round-trip trail, we found prolific growths of black sage, cliff spurge, chamise, coastal sagebrush, California encelia and Indian paintbrush, many of the plants exhibiting tiny blooms in late winter.

``It's a big job,'' said park ranger Karl Pierce. ``In the past, we had to purchase native plants, but this year we opened our own greenhouse. One thing that allows us to do, instead of introducing genetic stock from outside Point Loma, is we can collect native seeds and propagate the native plants and then introduce them.''

A similar turn-back-the-clock approach is being taken with a lighthouse that commands the highest ground of the point. The whitewashed New England-looking structure is a favorite with visitors - those toting cameras find it irresistible - but its history was pretty brief and undistinguished.

The lighthouse operated only from 1855 to 1891, when it was determined that a lighthouse this far up the mountain wasn't particularly useful. San Diego's heavy fog, after all, bunches up down along the coast, and at this elevation the beam didn't do much good.

A new light station was ultimately constructed at the base of the hill, and the Coast Guard mans it to this day, but the little white cottage at the top of the hill is still awash with 19th-century charm.

The park service is going to enhance that appeal even more over the next year, Pierce said, tearing up the asphalt of the road that encircles it and restoring the natural vegetation. The assistant lighthouse keeper's quarters will be reconstructed, too, and will house an exhibit on the operation.

Visitors today can ascend the spiral staircase up the center tower of the lighthouse and peer into the tiny rooms that once were home to the keeper and his family, but they aren't permitted to climb all the way to the top because of the fragility of the ancient lens.

Another popular destination for visitors to Cabrillo National Monument are its tide pools, which can be reached by a road that winds down to the Pacific side of the point. Particularly at low tide, there is much to see on the rock shelves along the water's edge, and the park usually has a ranger on patrol on weekends.

``There's been an octopus hanging around here lately,'' ranger Carol Martin told us one Sunday afternoon as we skirted a shallow lagoon. ``They're light-sensitive, so you won't always see them out in the open, but it's been swimming around here.''

Alas, the shy octopus didn't reveal so much as a tentacle as we scanned the waters, but in other places along the water's edge we were richly rewarded. In one pool 3 feet in diameter, we encountered perhaps 100 hermit crabs, moving almost imperceptibly, so that it appeared a bed of seashells was jiggling. Anemones, barnacles and mussels were everywhere. A crab the size of a half-dollar was picking at a damp rock with its oversize front claws, depositing morsels in its mouth as if with twin forks.

A good tip is to wear an old pair of canvas tennis shoes. Then you can wade right out into this world without having to pick your way precariously across slippery rocks.

Walking a coastal trail, navigating the tide pools and climbing into an old lighthouse are simple pleasures, but that defines the appeal of Point Loma. Even back in town, you'll find a few unpretentious lodging properties and a sprinkling of casual restaurants, but there is otherwise no vigorous thrust to attract tourism.

The pervasive motif, particularly on man-made Shelter Island, dates to the 1950s, when servicemen who'd returned from the Pacific were enamored of all things Polynesian. You'll find tiki gods, umbrellas in the drinks, faux-thatch roofs and forests of palm trees - shamelessly kitschy today, but fun.

Shelter Island, which provides calm water for the mooring of hundreds of pleasure boats, has a small public beach on the bay side, a pedestrian walkway along the water (festooned here and there with arbors of colorful bougainvillea) and a public fishing pier. At one point on the walk is the Tunaman's Memorial, a sculpture that commemorates the pioneers of the industry and some 77 fishermen - many of them Portuguese - who have been lost at sea since 1932.

Back in town, along the main drags of Rosecrans and Scott streets, there is no trendy shopping village or cafes with the tables outside. Point Loma remains the domain of fishermen and casual boaters, and what you'll find instead are a lot of no-nonsense establishments that cater to them: marine outfitters, tackle shops, pizza parlors, liquor stores - most with old-salt nautical names.

There are a few treasures, though, notably the new and used wares at Point Loma Books (1026 Rosecrans) and Nautical Books (1254 Scott) and the casual lunch setting at Point Loma Seafoods (2805 Emerson).

Downtown and the waterfront are just a short drive away, of course, if you require a fine-dining or culture fix.

Staying overnight in Point Loma, however, makes it easy to take in one of its signature offerings: the sunset. Catch it from the aptly named Sunset Cliffs Boulevard, on the Pacific side of the peninsula, where a walkway above the crumbling bluff stretches for more than a mile. Or head for the overlook on the campus of Point Loma Nazarene University (if you don't get driven mad by the speed bumps that seem to be positioned every 10 feet).

Or, if you don't find this too morbid, drive to the best sunset vantage point of all: the grounds of Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, on the road to the national monument. We drove through the cemetery gates to the west and walked out among the headstones and Monterey cypress trees to watch the sun dip into the Pacific. Better yet, from this vantage point high on the peninsula's ridge, we could turn around afterward and watch a nearly full moon rise in the west.

Nearly five centuries ago, Cabrillo and his men bedded down on a beach not far from here. A computerized lunar calendar indicates that the moon would have been full just five nights before they landed.

Probably got quite a show.

IF YOU GO

GETTING THERE: To reach Point Loma from Interstate 5 south or I-8 west, exit at Rosecrans Street (also listed as Route 209). Rosecrans will parallel the waterfront as it runs through the heart of Point Loma's business district. To reach Cabrillo National Monument, continue following the signs for Route 209. Its name will change several times: from Rosecrans Street to Canon Street to Catalina Boulevard to Cabrillo Memorial Drive. From downtown San Diego or the waterfront, you can reach Point Loma via Harbor Drive.

CABRILLO NATIONAL MONUMENT: Open daily from 9 a.m. to 5:15 p.m., until 6:15 p.m. in summer. Entrance fee is $5 per car. Great views of San Diego from a patio outside the visitors center and some informative exhibits on Cabrillo and his explorations of the California coast in the mid-1500s. [phone]; www.nps.gov/cabr.

CAPTION(S):

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(1 -- 5 -- color) Sights seen during a recent trip to Point Loma include (1) 1 a Navy ship heading out of San Diego Bay beneath a monument (2) to explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, (3) the area's popular tide pools, (4) a sculpture of Cabrillo's mid-1500s San Salvador ship at the Cabrillo National Monument (5) and the area's 19th-century lighthouse.

(6) The Tunaman's Memorial, honoring pioneers of the industry and those lost at sea, is on Shelter Island.

(7) A spectacular view of downtown San Diego can be seen in the background at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, part of the strong military presence on Point Loma.

(8) Fishing has always been a central part of Point Loma's identity - and it still is for recreational anglers who want to try their luck in the Pacific waters.

(9) A trail at Cabrillo National Monument winds through a wild environment rich in native coastal plants.

Eric Noland/Travel Editor

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IF YOU GO (see text)