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San Diego: Iron Mountain Trail
Tackle a heart-thumping 5.6-mile, out-and-back scramble over boulder fields to a 2,700-foot peak perched high above the coastal haze of the Pacific.
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| Author: | Backpacker Magazine |
| Activity: | Hiking |
| State: | California (CA) |
| Distance: | 2.77 mi |
| Difficulty: | 5 / 10 |
| Rating: |
 2 rating(s)
|
TO TRAILHEAD: I-15 N to Scripps Poway Pkwy.; turn R and drive 9 mi. Turn L onto CA 67. Park 2 mi. later at trailhead just S of County Hwy S4/Poway Rd.
| Position Format: | Datum: |
Tracks
IM01
| Dist: 2.77 mi | Points: 374 |
Iron Mountain Track
Points of Interest
IM001
Location: 32.977203°, -116.972832°Pass through rows of trees into chaparral slopes of Iron Mtn.
IM002
Location: 32.977489°, -116.965775°Enter zone of yucca blooms and fragrant wild sage still regenerating after the Cedar Fire of 10/03; look for softball-sized white-fungus puffballs mixed with orange and yellow wildflowers in meadow ahead
IM003
Location: 32.977276°, -116.959900°Straight @ 3-way; cross seasonal creekbed to begin ascent into rocky canyon of neon-violet Indian Warrior plants growing in black-ash soil
IM004
Location: 32.977673°, -116.952942°Reach saddle swathed in southern mountain misery shrubs (whose resinous foliage smells like witch hazel); peer through ponderosa pines for first views E into vast layers of Cleveland NF and Laguna Mtns.
IM005
Location: 32.975925°, -116.952034°Veer R @ 3-way, continue around E side of 2,696-ft. Iron Mountain
IM006
Location: 32.973888°, -116.952843°Silt-soiled path leads through false summit of big redrock boulders covered in tiny, black-cupped lichen
IM007
Location: 32.973408°, -116.955124°Zigzag up rocky terrain of white-and-black sage and wild irises
IM008
Location: 32.970703°, -116.955490°Solitary cone of Iron Mtn.; full-circle mountain vistas in E over to radiant Pacific with Coronado and Catalina Islands in W; to S, fingers of San Vicente Reservoir reach into the Barona Valley. Retrace route to car
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