Cowles mountain is the most popular hiking trail in San Diego. In-fact the amount of people on the summit can totally kill your hiking-high at times. Hence, we decided to spruce up the hike by adding the lesser known devil- Pyles peak!
This peak is special because it can be accessed only through the Cowles summit! We started the hike from the big Rock trailhead.
https://www.mtrp.org/directions.asp?idno=25
This trail head is less explored compared to the other ways which lead up to the summit. It has tree cover for about a mile which gives you a nice head-start.
This joins the trail from Barker way after a mile and you might see lot of bikers. The 1592' ft Cowles mountain summit gives you a nice look of lake Murray, the ocean, downtown and all the remaining peaks of mission trails.
On the summit you see the Pyles peak trailhead. It steers down instead of going up which might be confusing.
Follow the signs which leads you to a series of switchbacks.
It is not easy to see the peak right away.
Thankfully we had a cloud cover and it made the hike even better.
This rarely happens in San Diego :)
You might hardly find anyone on this trail. I found some beautiful shrubs on my way.
As this trail seems to be in the shadow of Cowles, you might be guaranteed a nice respite from the sun for half the distance. After about 0.8 mile, the trail forks. One seemed to be going down and the other less marked trail lead up to the peak.
The one to the left which seems to be descending leads to a viewpoint. The peak with the radio towers is Cowles summit! You realize the distance you have come from this view point.
Hurray! We made it to the top. Conquering two peaks on a single hike leaves you fascinated for a longer time :)
Took us around 3 hours and we logged approximately 6 miles with lot of elevation gain.
Go one step further on your next Cowles-mountain hike! :)
This peak is special because it can be accessed only through the Cowles summit! We started the hike from the big Rock trailhead.
https://www.mtrp.org/directions.asp?idno=25
This trail head is less explored compared to the other ways which lead up to the summit. It has tree cover for about a mile which gives you a nice head-start.
This joins the trail from Barker way after a mile and you might see lot of bikers. The 1592' ft Cowles mountain summit gives you a nice look of lake Murray, the ocean, downtown and all the remaining peaks of mission trails.
On the summit you see the Pyles peak trailhead. It steers down instead of going up which might be confusing.
Follow the signs which leads you to a series of switchbacks.
It is not easy to see the peak right away.
Thankfully we had a cloud cover and it made the hike even better.
This rarely happens in San Diego :)
You might hardly find anyone on this trail. I found some beautiful shrubs on my way.
As this trail seems to be in the shadow of Cowles, you might be guaranteed a nice respite from the sun for half the distance. After about 0.8 mile, the trail forks. One seemed to be going down and the other less marked trail lead up to the peak.
The one to the left which seems to be descending leads to a viewpoint. The peak with the radio towers is Cowles summit! You realize the distance you have come from this view point.
Hurray! We made it to the top. Conquering two peaks on a single hike leaves you fascinated for a longer time :)
Took us around 3 hours and we logged approximately 6 miles with lot of elevation gain.
Go one step further on your next Cowles-mountain hike! :)
