The Rock House

The hour-long Rock House hike is the closest thing we have to a home field hike.  We can climb to the top of this peak -- Mother Miguel Mountain -- right from our house.

The best place to start is Mount Miguel Community Park, right off of Mount Miguel Road in the San Miguel Ranch neighborhood of eastern Chula Vista.  Pick up the trail out beyond the dog park.  After the power line structure that looks like a giant hockey goalie, turn north on a well defined trail that cuts over to the base of Mother Miguel.  Cross the ravine and start the switchbacks up.  The trail gets a lot of use by mountain bikers, so it's pretty easy to follow.

About halfway up there is a rocky step that leads to a nice view back toward the park and all the baseball fields -- and all of southern San Diego county beyond.  From here, you scramble up some switchbacks until you come around the backside (southeast) of Mother Miguel.  Now the views are of the Salt Creek golf course, Otay Reservoir, Otay Mountain, and Corte Madera off in the distance.  As soon as you start heading north, you can see the rocky notch of the Rock House, which was apparently used as a marker for a potential resort over a 100 years ago.  Now it serves as a nice destination for a quick hike.  The hike to the summit (1500 ft.) takes around an hour.

We've taken lots of people on this hike -- friends without kids, friend with kids, serious hikers, not-so-serious hikers, visiting family.  It's not a difficult hike, but anybody expecting an easy stroll will be surprised as there is some dusty scrambling in the middle part.  It's entirely worth it, though, because the view at the top, where it's always breezy (even in the dead of summer), is a pretty impressive 360 of San Diego county... the ocean, the mountains, Cowles, Fortuna, Mt. Soledad, Otay, Mexico.  You have to walk a ways up the trail to see Cuyamaca Peak behind the imposing Mount Miguel.

To return to the  park you can either retrace your steps (fastest way -- 30 minutes to bottom) or continue along the trail and navigate yourself down a nicely marked trail that descends the north side of the mountain.  When you get to the bottom you veer left, west, and walk along the reservoir until you reach a big silver barn-like structure.  Take the single-track path by the barn back to the south  -- and it leads all the way back to the power line where you started.