From the sea to the Sky Islands.

Meet Brice & Christy

We're Brice and Christy Semmens, and as of June 2026 we have the privilege of caring for Ramsey Canyon Inn. We're lifelong birders and ecologists who have been coming to the canyon as visitors since our college days — long before cellphones and Merlin (who remembers listening to bird calls on CD in the car?!). Christy is a director of a conservation non-profit, and Brice is a professor at UC San Diego. While we both work full time in San Diego, we try to make it to the canyon as often as we can.

Our hopes for the inn

Our aim is to honor what's made this place beloved over the past half century — the morning feeders, tea and treats in the afternoon, the unhurried pace — while keeping it a clean, comfortable retreat. Our north star is simple: curate Ramsey Canyon Inn as a birder's and nature-lover's paradise, and be good stewards of one of the most extraordinary small pieces of habitat in North America. We can't wait to share it with you.