Abandoned Near a city · San Diego, California
3 Ghost Towns Near San Diego
San Diego's back country had its own gold rush in the 1870s, centered on Julian in the Cuyamaca Mountains. Julian lived on, but most of the camps around it, such as Coleman City, Branson City and Eastwood, left nothing to see. The other two towns here are farther north: Agua Mansa near Colton in the Inland Empire, and Llano del Rio in the Antelope Valley, just inside three hours.
The list is short because few towns within three hours of San Diego still have something to visit. Drive times are estimates from downtown San Diego without traffic.
Each one is within a three-hour drive of downtown San Diego, by OSRM's estimate over OpenStreetMap roads. They're listed nearest first.
1.Julian
A gold rush boomtown of the 1870s, after Fred Coleman found gold nearby. It became a farming and tourist town, known for its apples.
- What's left
- Much of the old town, now the Julian Historic District and California Historical Landmark No. 412. 1,768 people lived here at the 2020 census.
- Visiting
- Paved all the way on CA 78 and 79. Shops, places to eat and the Julian Pioneer Museum are in town.
2.Agua Mansa
A farming village on the Santa Ana River. Wikipedia dates it to 1842; the county museum dates it and its twin, La Placita, to 1845. In the 1840s the two villages were the largest settlements between Santa Fe and Los Angeles, and the first non-native settlements in the San Bernardino Valley.
- What's left
- Only the cemetery, California Historical Landmark No. 121.
- Visiting
- The San Bernardino County Museum runs the cemetery at 2001 Agua Mansa Road, Colton. Open Sunday to Thursday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., free. Call ahead, since wind can close it.
3.Llano del Rio
A socialist colony launched on May 1, 1914, in the Antelope Valley. Its water from Big Rock Creek proved unreliable, and the site was abandoned in 1918.
- What's left
- Granite walls and chimneys of the hotel and other buildings, and traces of a stone aqueduct.
- Visiting
- The ruins stand beside Highway 138 near 165th Street East, east of Palmdale. Paved all the way.
How we picked them
- We started from every mapped site in our index of 6,591 US ghost town sites and routed to each one from downtown San Diego, keeping those within 180 minutes.
- We preferred real towns over forts, stage stations and single mines; places you can legally visit or see from a public road; and sites with something left to see. We list at most nine.
- Status means what we could confirm from a recent source. Where we couldn't, the entry says "Not verified". Check before you go, and treat locked gates and posted signs as closed.
Sources
- Julian: Wikipedia, "Julian, California" (2020 census).
- Agua Mansa: San Bernardino County Museum, "Agua Mansa Pioneer Cemetery" (museum.sbcounty.gov), and Wikipedia, "Agua Mansa, California".
- Llano del Rio: Wikipedia, "Llano del Rio".
- Annual Estimates of the Resident Population for Incorporated Places of 20,000 or More, Ranked by July 1, 2025 Population: April 1, 2020 to July 1, 2025 (SUB-IP-EST2025-ANNRNK), U.S. Census Bureau, Population Division, Vintage 2025, released May 2026: San Diego city, California ranks 8 among US cities, with 1,406,106 people on July 1, 2025.
- Drive times and distances: OSRM routing on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), October 2026, from downtown San Diego (32.7157, -117.1611) to each town's coordinates.
- Town list, counties and record pages: our index of ghosttowns.com state lists and Wikipedia's ghost town categories, October 2026.
- Map: US Census Bureau state and county boundaries via us-atlas (public domain).
Photo credits
- Julian: Microsomen, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
- Agua Mansa: Johnwayne Stroud, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Llano del Rio: Binksternet, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0