Mission Trails Regional Park

San Diego is known for perfect weather, beaches, and tacos. “Hiking” doesn’t come to mind unless you are familiar with the area. In reality, San Diego has several hiking options. Popular hikes include Cowles Mountain, Iron Mountain, or Potato Chip Rock. For those up for a drive, options become vast with the Cuyamaca Mountains, Palomar Mountains, Anza Borrego, and Mount Laguna.  For those in need of a happy-medium between popularity and staying close to home, there is always Mission Trails Regional Park.

Mission Trails is an 8,000 acre hiking playground. It’s only 20 minutes from downtown and there is enough variety in the park to ease trail boredom. Yes, Mission Trails is home to Cowles Mountain, however I’m rarely caught on this incredibly busy, selfie-filled hike. Instead I head to the less-congested West side of the park. The trails are plentiful and the people disappear as your mileage increases. An added bonus of Mission Trails is the allure of wildflowers in the spring. 

My two favorite hikes in Mission Trails are North Fortuna from the back side of the park, and South Fortuna from the front side. North Fortuna is my shorter option (I want to say 3 miles from Old Mission Dam, but don’t quote me on that), while South Fortuna is a 6-mile loop that has more to offer. 

When I first began to hike 5 years ago, I started with the North Fortuna trail. Although it’s fairly short, it is steep. This hike was a great way for me to build my incline muscles. I always know I’m in good hiking shape when I can hike the entire uphill part without stopping for a break. As I got more comfortable hiking, I tried the South Fortuna loop. It is just as steep as North Fortuna, but includes railroad tie steps and more variety in terrain. For my spring flower visit, I took my sweet time and did South Fortuna.

I usually park my car in the lot before the turn into the visitor’s center. Before I start hiking, I go through my mental checklist as I do for every hike. This is assuming I have already packed the correct amount of water, snacks, and the 10 essentials.

1. Apply sunscreen
2. Put on hat
3. Wallet/ID (so I can be identified in case of an accident)
4. Phone (in case of emergency)
5. Music Device/Headphones
6. Camera
7. Sunglasses
8. Car keys

Then I’m ready to go! I begin walking along the Visitors Center Loop and cut across the San Diego River.

Soon the trail turns into a steep, hot, shadeless utility road, but at the top of the hill there is a nice downhill stretch. Of course this means you have to go back up to get to South Fortuna Summit, but it also means there’s plenty of variety.

Continuing downhill, the trail runs along a little river bed. There are always plenty of flowers to stop and admire here. This part also offers some shade from an otherwise treeless landscape. In the summer the park gets very hot, which makes this a perfect spot to take a break if I’m overheating.

I’ve always loved California poppies. In addition to being the state flower, poppies are absolutely gorgeous! Whenever I take a picture of poppies they always look fake because they are so thin and velvety.

Mission Trails always has a lot of purple flowers for me. I never get tired of flowers, and I certainly never get tired of purple, so the combination always leave me feeling fairly elated. These flowers were beautiful and had a lovely whisper of purple in them.

I see these big guys frequently when I’m hiking in Southern California. They are yucca plants, and particularly beautiful when they flower. I’ve found that the more purple the flowers, the more bugs it has in and around them.

After a short walk by the river bed the trail starts to go uphill again. According to a passerby I had just missed a rattle snake, but that part of the trail had plenty more to offer.

Everyone knows purple is my favorite color, so I enjoyed these beauties. They’re fragile though, and it took a minute for them to come into focus against the breeze.

There is a steady uphill climb with nice views of the summit for the next half mile. At the base of South Fortuna, I get a nice view of the steep uphill section. I take a short breather before I continue on and pretend to enjoy getting my butt kicked by the wooden steps and rock scrambling.

Once at the top, I tried to reach the summit before taking a break, but got distracted by this pretty little thing. I was pleasantly surprised when she stayed still long enough for me to get a decent picture.

I took a snack break when I reached my usual perch at the top of South Fortuna. A storm was coming in the next day, so unfortunately it wasn’t a nice day for views. Normally I can see downtown San Diego, but it was a hazy day.

When the trail reaches the saddle of the Fortunas and starts going downhill there isn’t much in terms of flowers. It’s a dry, windy area with no shade. However, when the trail flattens out and turns back South, it meets up with the river bed again.

This is my favorite section to hike if I’m looking for flowers. It never fails to impress, even if I have to keep an ear out for cross-country bikers while I’m bent down taking pictures. Many of the trails here are biking trails, and I’ve almost been knocked off the trail more than once. But the bikers are always having so much fun that I can’t be mad at them.

While I happily walked through my favorite flower-covered area, I heard a loud buzzing. I looked in the direction of the culprit and saw a HUGE bee! The picture doesn’t do him justice, but this bee was the size of a golf ball. I didn’t want to get too close, and of course jumped back hurriedly when he started flying towards me.

He buzzed lazily past me and ignored my presence. I guess I wasn’t the only one enjoying the flowers! I hiked on and climbed the last uphill part of my hike with enthusiasm.

I was back on the utility road trail. Typically this part of the hike doesn’t have anything exciting on it, but I spotted this flower at the bottom of the hill. I don’t know how I missed it at the start of the hike, but it was a very nice way to end my spring flower hike.

For anyone in the area I would absolutely recommend visiting this park. Although I avoid it in the summer because of the heat, Mission Trails is wonderful at all other parts of the year.  Just bring plenty of water and sun protection because there is little shade. Most importantly, enjoy the flowers!