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The path is brief however steep, and it smells of sage. A number of hundred ft under, I see mothers with strollers on a path beside the San Diego River. Above, I see granite cliffs and listen to the hollers of unseen climbers.
“Rope!” says one.
“Hey,” says one other. “There’s a ram’s horn down here!”
A climber tosses rope close to Kwaay Paay Peak.
(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Occasions)
That is the Climbers Loop Path at Kwaay Paay Peak, one in all my new favourite spots within the greatest metropolis park that you simply’ve by no means heard of: Mission Trails Regional Park in San Diego.
No, this park isn’t downtown like its extra well-known sibling, Balboa Park. However Mission Trails, eight miles northeast of downtown and 15 miles from the seashore, is the most important city-owned park in California. Together with the trickling river and a dam that dates to the early Spanish missionary days, the panorama contains 65 miles of trails on greater than 8,000 acres of rugged mountains, hills and valleys.
It seems like a wholesome slice of Arizona, and it covers extra territory than Balboa Park, L.A.’s Griffith Park, San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park and Irvine’s Nice Park mixed.
Additionally, it was once my yard. All through my teen years, my household lived on a cul-de-sac on the base of Cowles Mountain, the very best summit within the park and town. The chaparral started 40 ft from my again door.
Nearly as typically as we loitered on the mall and ogled the guitars at American Dream Music, my associates and I wandered the mountain slopes, wading via the sagebrush and nosing across the granite boulders, sidestepping coyote scat, and customarily strolling that wonderful line between excessive jinks and delinquency.
Formally, the park was youthful than we have been, having been established in 1974. Nevertheless it contained such deep and apparent historical past, even the teenage me might recognize it.
For millennia earlier than the Spanish confirmed up and constructed a dam to serve their first Alta California mission, the Kumeyaay lived in these hills.
The Previous Mission Dam dates to the early Spanish missionary days.
Throughout World Warfare I, the Military used the world, often called Camp Elliott, for tank and artillery coaching. Throughout World Warfare II, the Marines did the identical, leaving loads of ordnance behind — together with some that exploded in 1983, killing two boys. (Even now, after varied cleanup efforts, indicators warn that unexploded shells “might still exist.” In the event you see one thing suspicious, report it and don’t contact it.)
As soon as army officers determined they didn’t want the land, native leaders stepped in and started placing collectively a park within the Nineteen Sixties and ‘70s. The city added Cowles Mountain in 1974. The visitor center followed in 1995. The Cedar fire of 2003 burned about 2,800 acres, which have long since regrown.
The park’s customer heart contains instructional displays and a present store.
I had a good time brushing up on that historical past and wandering Mission Trails for 2 days this spring — my longest spell in these hills since highschool. In a single day I slept in a cabin at Santee Lakes Recreation Protect, about two miles east of the park, the place a number of recycled-water lakes are surrounded by well-kept fishing spots, strolling paths, playgrounds and a campground.
Additionally, I’ve to notice that I used to be in Mission Trails for greater than three hours earlier than I noticed any graffiti. I’m unsure that’s doable in Griffith Park.
The Santee Lakes Recreation Protect, which incorporates cabins, is 2 miles from San Diego’s Mission Trails Regional Park.
(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Occasions)
It’s unlikely many individuals exterior San Diego County know this place exists. However native hikers and birders end up in pressure. Climbers like Kwaay Paay Peak (elevation: 1,194 ft) and mountain bikers, equestrians and anglers have their very own favourite park territories. You’ll be able to camp at Santee Lakes or, on weekends, put up a tent within the park’s Kumeyaay Lake campground.
Kumeyaay Lake.
(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Occasions)
Mission Trails has the very best peak within the metropolis (Cowles Mountain at 1,591 ft). It has the compact Kumeyaay Lake and the bigger Murray Reservoir (a.okay.a. Lake Murray), which has fishing, kayaking and canoeing about three miles south of the park customer heart.
However many would say the park’s Most important Road is Father Junipero Serra Path, a paved path that runs alongside the San Diego River, mountains rising on both aspect.
Father Junipero Serra Path runs alongside a stretch of the San Diego River.
(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Occasions)
The lengthy, flat Father Junipero Serra Path is a good, straightforward hike for freshmen.
(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Occasions)
“I just started coming in the last few weeks,” hiker Sumeya Sayd, 23, instructed me sooner or later as she stepped off the Serra Path. Like me, she had hiked Cowles Mountain as a youth and neglected the remainder of the park.
Now, impressed by a Muslim American Society group chat, Sayd has been mountaineering the Serra and Climbers Loop trails extra typically and eager about the Mission Trails five-peak problem — 5 peaks within the park, every over 1,000 ft.
You’ll be able to stroll or pedal on the Serra Path, which stretches 2.6 miles and connects the park customer heart to the Previous Mission Dam. (Ordinarily, there’s a lane open to vehicular site visitors, however due to a sewage-line enchancment venture, automobiles can be banned till summer time of 2028.)
“This is Desert Wishbone-bush,” I overheard Justin Daniel saying sooner or later alongside the path. Daniel, who held aloft a purple flower, was main a gaggle of about 15 folks from the California Native Plant Society.
Quickly the group moved on to the California Buckwheat and Daniel added that “we have the most native plants in California for one county,” together with “more native bees than you can shake a stick at.”
How city is that this city park? Not very. No museums, no zoos, no eating places. Nonetheless, its busiest path will get an estimated 780,000 hikers a yr. That’s the path to the highest of Cowles Mountain from Navajo Street and Golfcrest Drive.
Once I lived within the neighborhood, many individuals nonetheless known as Cowles Mountain “S Mountain,” as a result of nearly each fall from the Thirties into the Seventies, San Diego State freshmen used lye and white paint to make a giant S close to the highest, 400 ft excessive and visual for miles.
Now the S is lengthy gone, however via the years I’ve seen foot site visitors develop. I’ve hiked it solo, with my daughter and with a pal going through a profound loss. Though the path to the highest from the Golfcrest trailhead is simply 1.5 miles, each time it’s a bit more difficult than I count on — 950 ft of elevation achieve, irregular steps, crumbling rocks. Within the previous days, I used to stand up and down in 90 minutes. These days, my knees complain and the spherical journey takes two hours.
Fortuitously, the view from the highest nonetheless hits me like a shock each time: the hills of Mexico to the south, the shoreline to the west, the miles of undeveloped slopes and valleys to the north. In an ideal hiker’s world, possibly there can be no line of utility towers slicing via the Fortuna Mountain portion of Mission Trails and no buzzing radio towers atop Cowles Mountain. However this can be a metropolis park in any case. On this huge expanse of nature, that’s straightforward to neglect.
Cowles Mountain is the very best peak within the park.
The place to hike
Mission Trails Regional Park has almost 65 miles of trails. Listed here are some to strive.
In the event you’re searching for a straightforward hike and also you’re a beginner, begin with the lengthy, flat 2.6-mile Father Junipero Serra Path. Two different straightforward routes, properly suited to children, are the Kumeyaay Lake Nature Path (1 mile across the lake; stuffed with birdsong within the mornings) and the 1.5-mile Customer Middle Loop Path. For an extended, largely flat hike with ample shade, strive the park’s Oak Canyon Path, the place just a little seasonal waterfall materializes among the many rock formations close to the far finish of the three.4-mile out-and-back route. That path has solely 240 ft of elevation achieve; park rangers name it a “moderate” problem. It’s 1.5 miles to the highest of Cowles Mountain from the trailhead at Golfcrest Drive and Navajo Street. In the event you begin as a substitute at Huge Rock Park in Santee, it’s a 2.5-mile climb to the highest. Rangers classify each routes as tough. For a stiffer problem, you may strive climbing to the South Fortuna or North Fortuna peaks. (Distances fluctuate, relying on route). Additionally, there’s the transient, steep Climbers Loop Path (rated tough, with 400 ft of altitude achieve in a 1-mile spherical journey).
Down the street, there could also be new challenges, as a result of the park continues to be rising. Within the final yr, Mission Trails Regional Park Basis government director Jennifer Morrissey stated, the park has added greater than 100 acres via a pair of acquisitions at its northern edges. Ultimately the park may add a protected river-crossing close to the customer heart — a risk rooted in tragedy. In early 2021, 21-year-old trailrunner Max LeNail died in a sudden storm whereas making an attempt to cross the San Diego River close to the customer heart. His household is hoping to construct a footbridge in his reminiscence, however for now, the closest crossing is a number of miles away.
The Santee Lakes Recreation Protect contains 10 cabins.
The place to remain The Kumeyaay Lake Campground (2 Junipero Serra Path, San Diego; [619] 668-2748) is a part of Mission Trails Regional Park. It contains 46 dry/primitive campsites, open Friday and Saturday nightly solely. No RV hookups. Charges start at $26 nightly. Santee Lakes Recreation Protect (9310 Fanita Parkway, Santee; [619] 596-3141) contains 290 RV spots, about 12 tent-camping websites and 10 cabins. The RV and tent tenting spots hire for $62-$111 nightly. Cabins go for $137-$265. There’s loads of fishing and boating, however no swimming within the recycled water of the lakes. The protect has an area put aside for a lakefront restaurant with ample deck, however two concessionaires have closed there since 2021 and 2024. Protect administration has stated one other restaurant will open quickly. 
The view from atop Cowles Mountain at Mission Trails Regional Park, San Diego.
(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Occasions)
