Cabrillo National Monument144 acres at the tip of Point Loma, the 1855 Old Point Loma Lighthouse, and the spot Juan Cabrillo first stepped onto the West Coast in 1542

On September 28, 1542, Portuguese-born Spanish navigator Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo sailed his three-ship squadron into San Diego Bay and stepped ashore — the first European to land on what is now the U.S. West Coast. He named the harbor San Miguel; the name was changed to San Diego sixty years later. President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed Cabrillo National Monument on October 14, 1913 — at half an acre, then the smallest unit in the National Park System; it was expanded to 144 acres in 1959 and now ranks as one of the most-visited NPS units in California with roughly 850,000 visitors a year.

The 422-foot Point Loma headland holds three layered histories. The 1855 Old Point Loma Lighthouse — one of the eight original West Coast lighthouses authorized by Congress — is restored to its 1880s appearance and walkable inside (climb to the watch room is occasional, posted as Open Tower Days). The 14-foot Cabrillo Statue, sculpted by Álvaro de Bree and gifted by Portugal in 1939, faces the bay over the city. The military layer: Battery Ashburn and Battery Whistler (1942) — concrete coastal-artillery bunkers and the Coastal Defense Searchlight Shed — defended San Diego Bay during WWII and now hold the Military History Exhibit.

Plan three to four hours. Drive in (the cliffside approach is one of San Diego's iconic drives), start at the Visitor Center for the orientation film, walk the lighthouse and the Cabrillo Statue overlook (north for downtown, south for Tijuana), then drive the steep one-way road down to the tidepools — best at low tide on a winter morning when rangers staff the rocks. The Bayside Trail (2.5 mi round trip) and the Oceanside Trail (newest, 2022) connect the upper monument to the tidepool road. December–March: gray-whale migration peaks, and the Whale Overlook is the best land-based vantage on the southbound route.