A couple of weeks ago, I sniffed around a unique Balboa Park neighborhood oasis, Golden Hill Park. This week my fine canine senses have led me to Palm Canyon, a veritable tropical oasis tucked inside the Park’s popular central mesa area.

One of the earliest sections of the Park to be developed, Palm Canyon first came to life in 1912. In anticipation of the 1915 Panama-California Exposition, Balboa Park’s famed horticulturist, Kate Sessions, took advantage of an underground stream here to plant dozens of Mexican fan palms, along with other varieties, to create a tropical paradise. Many more have been added over the century, resulting in a total population of 450-plus palms representing over 50 species, along with many other complementary specimens of plant life.

This lush canyon was further enhanced in 1976 with a convenient wooden staircase and footbridge just south of the House of Charm. Now visitors can either descend to explore the shady canyon’s hidden treasures as they hike southward toward the Old Cactus Garden. Or, they can enjoy the scenery from atop the footbridge overlooking the canyon.

Ironically, one of the most striking horticultural features in the canyon isn’t a palm at all, but a large Moreton Bay fig tree adjacent to the wooden steps. This tree’s massive and elaborate root structure is any pooch’s dream come true!

Jack asks: Dear Cosmos, If I have to chew on another Barbie doll, mp3 player, or sheepskin slipper this holiday season, I think I’m going to hurl all over the new Berber carpet. Where should my family go to find truly unique gifts this year?

Cosmos: Well, Jack, while I can’t encourage chewing on your family’s nice holiday presents, I can help you direct them to the many stores in Balboa Park that offer the widest selection of one-of-a-kind gift items.

For starters, mom will love the original work of the many featured jewelry designers in some of Balboa Park’s stores. The Mingei International Museum right now is displaying fine jewelry by Arline Fisch, whose sculpture is currently on display in that museum’s galleries, and the San Diego Museum of Art is offering a rare collection of resin-inlay jewelry by the Los Angeles-based designer Sean Hill (pictured).

Many stores, including the Spanish Village Art Center and San Diego Art Institute, not only sell handcrafted jewelry, but paintings, prints, pottery, glassware, and other types of home décor by local artisans. For a more international selection, they can try the World Beat Center or United Nations Association Gift Store.

For dads, hobbyists and the younger set, the stores at the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center, Natural History Museum, Air & Space Museum, and Automotive Museum have an incredible selection distinctive games, toys, books, models, and inexpensive stocking stuffers that will suit anyone’s tastes—except apparently yours, Jack.

Tucked away in the southeastern-most end of Balboa Park is a charming reminder in microcosm of what makes Balboa Park such a treasure to the City of San Diego. For just as the Park serves as an urban oasis for the entire city, Golden Hill Park provides an oasis-like respite for this venerable community and its many dog lovers.

After winding your way up 26th Street from Pershing Drive, take a left before reaching A Street to find this green mesa that overlooks Florida Canyon and the municipal golf course on one side and the downtown skyline on the other.

A paved traffic loop surrounds a wide expanse of green grass, which is dotted with palm, Moreton Bay fig, and other tree varieties. Outside the “loop” are several picnic tables and hiking trails that allow you to explore the park’s many botanical wonders, including the Coast Oak Grove at the northern tip.

Easily overlooked at the south end are remnants of an historic Arts & Crafts–style stone fountain grotto that dates to this park’s beginnings. The entire site was designed in 1907 by Henry Lord Gay (who also designed downtown’s Western Metal Supply Building), making Golden Hill Park one of the first developed areas of Balboa Park.

Golden Hill Park is not only the perfect spot for family picnics and pick-up soccer games, but this neat little park within a park gives joggers, bicyclists, and, of course, dog walkers a shady natural refuge to “get away from it all.”