Big Rock Road Trail — Attraction in Santee

You can think of this as one of the "back ways" up Cowles Mountain. You'll encounter a fraction of people on the trail that you'll pass on the main trail (from Golfcrest). The first half of the hike is a somewhat narrow trail with dense foliage in most places; halfway up, it connects with the fire road. While the fire road itself isn't much to look at, it's here that you'll probably start stopping to take photos of the expansive vistas over east San Diego. The last portion of the fire road becomes rather steep and is the most challenging portion of the hike (watch your footing on the way back down; it's easy to start sliding if you go too fast). The fire road ends in a small saddle between the main peak and the communications tower area; from there you can scramble up a short set of stairs to the top and touch the...

Great trail for a half-day/early morning hiking trip. The total distance (from the trail head on Big Rock rd to the Cowles summit and back) is a little over 5 miles. The majority of the trail is fairly light and very well maintained. Only the last less than half mile right before the summit is a bit steep and would need shoes with better gripping (especially the downhill part). The trail might be less crowded than the Cowles trail starting from the big parking lot. But there is still (pleasantly) constant hiker flow on it. Needless to say the view from the summit is gorgeous. That said, the only problem is that there is no rest room at the trail head, nor is there any at the summit. So hikers need to...

The trail is 4.5 miles round trip with a 1.2k ft elevation gain. It is rated difficult, but anyone with average health (even without hiking experience) should be able to finish the roundtrip in under 2.5 hours, especially with good shoes and hiking poles. We hiked with cheap running shoes and slipped a couple times, and the rocks were uncomfortably massaging our soles. The last stretch was steep, but not too bad....