The Self Realization Fellowship meditation gardens and hermitage (215 West K Street)

“A surprise, sir! During your absence abroad, we have had this Encinitas hermitage built; it is a ‘Welcome home gift!’ ” - Sister Gyanamata to Paramahansa Yogananda, 1937

This inspirational site is one of the most beautiful along the San Diego County coastline. When mining engineers James Noonan passed through Encinitas in 1887, he was so taken by the view that he bought the property for one thousand dollars and brought his family here from Colorado. On a September night, 1893, their house burned to the ground and the Noonans moved away.

Forty-four years later, the hermitage was built for Paramahansa Yogananda in 1937, followed by the construction of a Golden Lotus Temple at the bluff's edge. By 1942, water draining from nearby hillsides softened underlying clay. This resulted in shifting earth, which plunged the temple down the cliff. Today, cautious measures are taken to stabilize the bluff and to control water seepage.