Mount Rubidoux Park — Attraction in Riverside

This hike is absolutely beautiful! And typically the people there are so nice, respectful and thus, super peaceful. There is a park close by with ample parking and clearly the people who take care of this area take a lot of pride in what they do.

However, on this morning’s hike with my handsome wife and out two fur babies, we had an entirely disgusting encounter with aracist, smug white woman, who looks just like the mom from Jon and Kate plus 8.

To start, she didn’t have her dog on the leash, so my wife and I moved our babies to a ditch on the side of the trail, so they could just walk by with their two dogs, one on a leash and one off. We don’t know her dog, but we do know or babies will be scared if a random dog just runs up to them, so we did the best we could.

But her and her entire party of white privileged jerks, stopped in the middle of the small trail road.

We were some ways away when I asked her to please put her dog on the leash, she argued stupidly that she had a leash in her hand and her dog was fine off leash. My wife then backed me up saying it is for our dogs, it is the rules and thus , not for her to debate. Yet, prividleged people always think they have an excuse to put others at risk and she didn’t show even a speck of remorse for her poor decision.

Instead, she and her party walked past us saying passive aggressive rude comments about us, just loudly enough for us to hear. She even tried to use God to shame us. How does that make you a godly person? Selfishly breaking the rules, arguing when you get caught and then arrogantly acting out like a child, blaming others for holding you accountable. What makes you so special that you don’t have to follow the expectations everyone else does? It might just be the color of your skin which has allowed you to skate by, not suffering any of the consequence of your wrong doings.

To make things worse, a brunette, heavily salon tanned woman from that group, ran into us again as we were ending our hike. We didn’t even remember it was her and my wife even said, good morning to her and that’s when she decided to be disrespectful directly to my wife. It was unbelievable, we didn’t even know it was her and she had the audacity to act so condescending when her friend was entirely in the wrong.

Please note, I am writing this review not to degrade the hike in any way! It is truly a little piece of heaven. I only wanted to thank my wife for openly confronting privilege and arrogance, and I hope this review reminds people to not only respect the natural surroundings while hiking, but also, to respect the equally important humanity that is also with you...

Street parking is no longer available; you must park all the way down and across the street in the new sports field complex lot, so plan ahead for about 15-20 minutes of extra walking time, and use the park restrooms first. It's always best to come during the early morning or late afternoon, or just in time for a colorful sunset over Jurupa Valley. After dark it's harder to avoid dog poop on the trail, even with a flashlight (focusing on detecting dog poop is not how I want to enjoy my time here). Also, a mouse may run over your feet or get into your bag. Every year seems to add more flowering bushes and trees to the landscape, although some awful jerk has chopped down 2 of my favorite trailside trees (green trunks and branches with yellow flowers and leaves). It's special but sad when I see a millipede trying to cross the pavement to get to the other side - with all those legs they should be fast, but their fat, long, black, cylinder-shaped bodies are quite heavy for them! Please help these creatures avoid being stepped on...gently grasp both sides of their middle, and carry to a safe spot under a bush. Don't let them drop! They sustain crush injuries from simply falling off of a branch onto rock because they are heavy. Plenty of other wildlife inhabit this stress-relieving destination, such as lizards, hawks, mice, regional bird species, and bats. When the trail forks, you may choose to continue up to the right, which is a longer walk but at a very low incline, or to the left, which is a steeper incline. All trails wrap around and are openly exposed on the outside of the mountain. Both trails end up at the top, where panoramic scenery of the land below surrounds you and a large, tall Easter Cross to the right, and a memorial and American flag pole...

Its an amazing park to walk through during the morning and afternoons anytime between 5am - 5pm, if your looking to only find active walkers probably by them selfs or with a couple people (especially wearing mask), depending on the hour there might only be 10 people there great for a run.

If you go late afternoon to the night 5pm - 5am then its up for grabs; you'll get people blocking the path, huge groups, kids vandalizing areas with spray paint or loitering, people getting high or drunk, not much respect for others who are just looking for some cardio, in that case I recommend the trail in Loma Linda as an alternative!

It has an amazing view at night, more than when the sun is up. Alternative trails to climb the mountain are present, just wear slip resistant boots or shoes with good traction. The whole thing is a little under 3 miles if walked the normal route. walking it during 1pm-3pm in the summer is perfect for tans, some rats do walk around at night so be aware. Dog friendly just remember the doggy bags and leash, also expect many dogs if your dog is aggresive.

Above all it is a safe location to hike for women or men going solo, haven't heard of any foul play incidents. Just always stay alert either way and be prepared with water/food, a cell phone &' telling someone...