Rod's Adventures: Volcan Mountain Preserve

I found a few hiking groups through an organization called Meetup. You can check them out yourself at meetup.com. Anyway there are groups for just about everything you can think of and I joined some for hiking.

A trip organizer scheduled a hike at Volcan Mountain Preserve and there were nine of us that signed up to attend.

Volcan Mountain Preserve is in San Diego County, about two miles north of the town of Julian.

Six of us meet in a park-n-ride lot to carpool to the trail head. Two others came from the north and one drove up alone.

It was just over a hour to drive to the trailhead and the four of us in my car got to know each other while I drove.

We met the rest of the group, made introductions, and started up the trail at 9:30.

At the entrance to the Preserve is a impressive wood and iron sculpture and a time capsule that is not scheduled to be opened until 2100, a few years from now.

I'm glad that we had a early start on the trail because the first part is mostly uphill. On a hot day some of the fun would be lost.

There were cool, shaded areas to hike thru also.

There was a sign on the trail about this old structure. It turns out that Volcan Mtn was considered as a place for the Hale telescope. It was decided that Palomar Mtn, 25 miles to the north was the best place to install the telescope, but it took a few years. This is all that is left of one of the cabins that was built to house the decision makers at the time.

After about an hour we were at the top. The first thing you see is some sort of tower.

A little bit further is a memorial bench with a lot of animals wood burned into it. It is beautiful to say the least, and a great place to rest and look out over the Banner Grade.