By Julie Gallant / San Diego Union-Tribune / January 22, 2026
Poway’s Kumeyaay-Ipai Interpretive Center is considered a sacred site in part because the rock formations around it resemble animals.
A large rock outcropping at the top of the 5-acre site off Poway Road includes shapes in the form of a turtle, bottlenose dolphin and a small whale, Docent Robert Holton pointed out on a Jan. 17 tour.
According to the Native American creation story, humans and animals and even plants are all equal, Holton told his group.
“They spoke to each other and had a partnership in life,” he said. “What might be natural shapes in stones reminds them of animals and makes this site sacred.”
The interpretive center at 13104 Ipai Waaypuk Trail is one of five Kumeyaay villages in the Poway area. The others are on Garden Road and at Sycamore Canyon, Twin Peaks and Sabre Springs.
Kumeyaay translates as “those who face the water from a cliff.” Ipai indicates their territory. The Kumeyaay indigenous people who live north of the San Diego River in Mission Valley are known as Ipai and those who live south of the river in Southern California and Baja California, Mexico are referred to as Tipai.
“The Kumeyaay believe they’ve always lived in San Diego County,” Holton said, noting that the oldest artifact found on the site is an 8,000-year-old quartz knife blade. “Due to carbon dating, they’ve been here at least 13,000 years.”
The cultural site was acquired by the city of Poway in 1987 as a way to preserve archeological features on the knoll, said Yoly Cohen, an interpretive park ranger in Poway’s Community Services Department. The interpretive center was established through a collaboration among the city, the Friends of the Kumeyaay and the San Pasqual Band of Mission Indians, Cohen said.
“We gratefully acknowledge the ancestral homeland of the Kumeyaay people, where the city of Poway (Pauwai) now lies,” states a plaque in the interpretive center’s museum. “For millennia they lived in harmony and balance with the natural world that sustained, protected, and provided for the people. We respectfully share the history of this ancient village site, as well as celebrate the continued presence and contributions of the Kumeyaay people here in Poway (Pauwai) and San Diego County.”
Today the cultural center has artifacts such as pottery and baskets on display, photographs and a library. Near the beginning of the site’s trail, a replica village contains several ‘ewaas, which are traditional Kumeyaay homes. One ‘ewaa is thatched with tule reed and the others have been made using broom baccharis, which grows on site, Cohen said.
“The first people left spear points, grinding instruments as well as bone and shell tools,” said a docent. “We have recreated a village setting with Kumeyaay houses constructed by Eagle Scouts.”
A few of the native plants on site are agave, yucca, coastal live oak, prickly pear cactus, blue elderberry, laurel sumac, wild cucumber and manzanita. Visitors to the interpretive center can learn how native plants were used for food, shelter and medicine. For example, the wild cucumber was used to adhere paint to rocks, treat skin infections such as ringworm, and as a fishing tool, Holton said.
Also on display are portable grinding stones called metates and in-ground solid metates called morteros. Some of the morteros took thousands of years to be ground to 12 or 13 inches deep, Holton said.
Carlsbad resident Lauray MacElhern, who said she appreciates nature-oriented places, came to the interpretive center with her husband Ed Bezkor, 8-year-old son and friends from the Sanderling Waldorf School in Vista.
“It was a beautiful experience feeling immersed in the history of this area and learning about Native Americans,” MacElhern said. “They had a deep knowledge of plants and how they were used for self-sufficient living.”
Her friend, Brian Reid of Del Mar, said his 8-year-old son wanted to learn more about the Kumeyaays after being introduced to their lifestyle at the Sanderling Waldorf private school.
Reid said they learned about balanced living from the earth during their tour in Poway.
“Before, people had to prepare for winter and summer and had to follow the food,” he said.
Docents at the interpretive center can explain to visitors that Kumeyaay people were known to be natural resource managers as well as hunters and gatherers. They used acorns gathered locally and from the mountains in addition to seeds, plants and animals.
The Kumeyaay-Ipai Interpretive Center is open from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. the third Saturday of each month. School tours can be scheduled on the first and second Thursday and Friday of each month.
More information is available at Poway.org and through the Barona Cultural Center & Museum and the San Diego Archeological Center.
