San Diego: Iron Mountain Trail

IM01

Dist: 2.77 mi	Points: 374	Calories: none
Time: none	Speed: 0.0 mph	Pace: 0:00 / mi

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