Thursday, March 1, 2012
This week I found out that I was
sitting for a few days due to bureaucratic red tape at my jobsite, so
I decided to turn a negative into a positive and the boys and I
grabbed our packs and jumped in the truck and drove to Black MountainOpen Space Park here in Rancho Penasquitos for a spur of the moment
hike up Black Mountain. Our cameras came along with us.
Black Mountain is a 1558' high mountain
which sits smack in the center of San Diego's Coastal Plain, a series
of Mesas (flat plateaus) and Canyons which average 0 to 600 feet in
elevation. Black Mountain, on the other hand, is the highest
mountain within fifteen miles of the Pacific coast anywhere in
southern California. It rises like a conical volcano from this
gently sloping coastal plain, averaging over a thousand feet of
prominence within nearly ten miles (that is, you would have to go ten
miles away before you reached a mountain as high as Black Mountain).
It is the second highest point in the city of San Diego after 1593'
high Cowles Mountain (Only 35' higher). Like Cowles, Black Mountain
has a microwave relay station on its summit; but unlike Cowles, Black
Mountain is fairly untraveled (relatively speaking), which means that
you will run into people on the Black Mountain Trail, but you won't
feel like you're standing in a line for Space Mountain at Disneyland
like it sometimes seems you have to do at Cowles Mountain.
The weather was gorgeous!
A fast moving Alaskan storm just blew through San Diego over the last
few days and dropped a lot of rain in a short period of time (a lot
for San Diego is 1” in 3 days, a full 10% of how much water we can
expect this year), so the dirt was a bit wet and there were still big
mud puddles in the trail. White, fluffy, silver lined clouds flew
by, blown by a fast moving chill wind blowing from the coast. The
sun was out, bright, and strong, warming us as we got out of the
truck and started gearing up for the hike. We started at Sundevil
Way Trailhead next to the Mt Carmel High School football stadium and
quickly gained the hundred or so feet elevation needed to reach
Hilltop Park where we reached the beginning of the Nighthawk Trail.
You can start the hike from Hilltop Park if you'd like. There's
plenty of parking, restrooms, and water, and it would cut two hundred
feet total elevation and about a quarter mile off the hike.
There are several trails to choose from
that lead up Black Mountain. There are trailheads on all four sides
of the mountain. Some are longer with a more gentle slope while
Nighthawk, the trail we took, is the steepest and shortest. The most
used trail is the service road which can be found in the residential
neighborhood to the west of the mountain.
We continued past the Kiosk, grabbing a
complementary full color map of Black Mountain Open Space Park as we
passed (Jake & Josh collect these things). The trail switched
back and forth between mild duty hills and flat lands until it
reached the Black Loop, a trail which heads off eastward to the east
shoulder of the mountain, an area that is a mountain unto itself at
1365' elevation. If it were not considered just another part of
Black Mountain, the east shoulder would actually be the fourth
highest mountain in the city of San Diego, beating out Mt Fortuna by
about 150' and trailing behind Black Mountain's West Shoulder (1382')
by a mere 17'.
The East Shoulder is another hike,
however, so we turned toward the first of only two moderate climbs we
would experience and headed onward up Nighthawk Trail toward the
junction with the fire road.
We reached the Fire Road Junction,
where both Nighthawk and Miner's Loop Trails intersect with the fire
road within a few hundred feet of each other at an elevation of
1271'. It felt strange to us when comparing Black Mountain toKwaaypaay, which we climbed last week. Kwaaypaay was so steep
compared to Black Mountain, and it seemed like the steep hills went
on forever. It was strange to think that, by the time we reached the
junction with Miner's Loop Trail we were at 1195', the same elevation
as Kwaaypaay, but it seemed as though we had barely climbed anything
yet. A steep and rocky hill followed gaining us another 80' or so
and bringing us to the Service Road where we turned right and began
the final push.
Once on the Service Road, it was only a
half mile more before we reached the summit. During this half mile
we gained the final three hundred feet elevation. The summit is very
nice, but there is a large transmitter facility on the top and it has
all sorts of loud machinery and the like which has a tenancy to ruin
the peace. The views are awesome, though. You have a 360 degree
view of the entire coastal plain and a panorama of the highest of the
local mountains as well. 4S Ranch and Rancho Santa Fe are beautiful,
and Mira Mesa, Miramar, and Kearney Mesa beyond seem to stretch on
forever. The Mission Trails 5 are clearly visible, as is Mt Woodson
and the Dos Pecos 4 (including Iron Mountain). It was a little hazy
and it was hard to make out Palomar to the north, and the Cuyamacas
and Viejas Mountain were not visible to the east.
The most peaceful place on the whole
mountain was “The Cut”. The Cut is nothing more than a nickname
for the Service Road as it cuts up and across the mountain toward the
summit. From the cut we had about 120 degrees of the views we had
available to us up on top (at an elevation of 1500' or so), but it
was peaceful and quiet, far from the constant humming and stammering
of the machinery at the microwave towers. We only saw one other
person on the way up and a different person on the way down, and we
were up there for four hours total. I love hiking on weekdays.
There probably would have been dozens had we gone on the weekend.
One drawback to going during the week,
however, is that the station atop the summit of Black Mountain is a
fully functional station and, as such, has people who work there from
time to time. We were passed on the service road by two trucks as we
went up. They were quite a surprise.
After taking a break and some great
shots from the summit (see the pictures on our Facebook Page), the
boys and I decided to head back down. We discussed returning for the
4th of July since you would probably be able to see every
single fireworks show in the city of San Diego from atop Black
Mountain. It was an excellent day and I thoroughly enjoyed myself, as
did the boys (though Jake complained a bit as we got closer to the
truck, but I think complaining is a sport to him). It was a lot of
fun and we can't wait to go back, but first, on to the next peak...
Thanks for reading Scoutcraft Academy Trail bLog!
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Basic Stats:
Black
Mountain
Elevation
Rank: #2 in the city of San Diego after Cowles Mountain (1593')
prominence:
500' Avg
Elevation of 4S ranch to the north
450' Avg
Elevation of Mira Mesa/MCAS Miramar to the south .
700' Avg
Elevation of Carmel Mtn Ranch to the east
250' Avg
Elevation of Rancho Santa Fe to the west
1058'
prominence from 3 miles to the north
1108'
prominence from 4 miles to the south
858'
prominence from 3 miles to the east
1308'
prominence from 4 miles to the west
1540'
prominence from the San Dieguito River 6 miles to the west.
Closest
elevation higher than Black Mountain:
8.5miles
east in Poway
Nothing
higher west to ocean in southern California
Elevations:
697'
Elevation of Parking at Sundevil Way Trailhead
807'
Elevation of Hilltop Park
1558'
Elevation at Summit
861'
Difference in Elevation from Sundevil Trailhead
Distance
& Slope:
2.22miles
one way
4.44miles
There & Back
Max Slope
50%
AVG Slope
12%
1052
elevation gain one way
-205'
elevation loss one way
2514' Total
Delta E
Time:
Began hike:
13:42
Summit:
15:41
Began
Descent: 16:39
Finished
Hike: 17:42
Ascent-
1:59
Descent-1:03
Break on
Summit- 0:58
Total Hike
time- 4:00
Download the Black Mountain Google Earth KMZ File for this hike HERE
