Hiking Otay Mountain

About a month ago, I bought a book from REI...Afoot and Afield in San Diego County. We have been itching to try out some of the hikes in this book since I got it, but plans and everyday life seemed to always get in the way. So a couple weekends ago Nick was staying with us and we decided to take the dogs on a hike to Otay Mountain. I don't know how anyone would know about this place besides through this book...but I suppose that's a blessing because it is probably one of the most un-crowded places I've seen in San Diego. It's not really a hiking trail, it's a dirt road...it's pretty long, too, so we hiked for part of the way, then came back the next day and drove the whole way up to the top.

The view from the top is quite impressive...

 The mountains just across the border.

The back view of "our" mountain...Mt. Miguel. 

 Clint and Nick watching the skydivers. We ate lunch up at the top and noticed a plane going by every so often...and then we'd see little tiny people in parachutes falling from the sky a couple minutes later. Pretty cool to see! 

 One of the many radio towers at the top.

More of the mountains of Mexico :-)

This tree started falling down while we were checking out the view...so Nick helped it along.

The remains of a fireplace.

Mission accomplished :-)

The doggies...and Shasta showing off her new doggy back pack

The way back down the hill was somewhat treacherous...for our little Escape, at least...we could have gone down a different way that would have led us safely to a main road and we would have been on our way home. But, we thought we would be adventurous and take a different road that would loop back to where we started. The road started out just fine, and as we meandered down the mountain we ran into quite a few border patrol. They didn't pay too much attention to us, though. The road led us right next to the border fence, which was pretty cool because I'd never been that close to it before. Secretly we were hoping to find some illegals trying to cross, but no luck :-) The next two pictures were taken from my phone, so they aren't the best quality...

The road turned very rocky and our vehicle was certainly not the type you would want to take on this part of the road...but if you have an off road vehicle or 4wd you would be fine! I highly recommend it if you are properly equipped!