La Jolla, like most of Southern California, is an area of great natural beauty with a mixture of geology - sandy beaches and rocky shorelines good for a variety of outdoor activities.

The area has a number of public beaches, parks, as well as shopping areas.

The city of San Diego it self has deep canyons separating its mesas, creating small pockets of natural parkland scattered throughout the city.

The same canyons give parts of the city a highly segmented feel, creating literal gaps between otherwise proximal neighborhoods and contributing to a low-density, car-centered built environment.
Downtown San Diego is located on San Diego Bay. Balboa Park lies on a mesa to the northeast.

It is surrounded by several dense urban communities and abruptly ends in Hillcrest to the north. The Coronado and Point Loma peninsulas separate San Diego Bay from the ocean. Ocean Beach is on the west side of Point Loma. Mission Beach and Pacific Beach lie between the ocean and Mission Bay, a man-made aquatic park.

La Jolla, an affluent community, lies north of Pacific Beach. Mount Soledad in La Jolla offers views from northern San Diego County to Mexico.

Mountains rise to the east of the city, and beyond the mountains are desert areas. Cleveland National Forest is a half-hour drive from downtown San Diego. Numerous farms are found in the valleys northeast and southeast of the city.

San Diego County has one of the highest count of animal and plant species that are on the endangered species list than other counties in the United States.