Hike Review: Mother Miguel Trail

The views from the top of Mother Miguel Trail are beautiful, but the true joy of this hike is a quiet trail that provides a great workout.

Mother Miguel Mountain Trailhead is located in Chula Vista and offers a challenging 4.4 mile hike with an elevation climb of 1040 feet. Grab your water and get an early start to enjoy the gorgeous views of the city and Sweetwater River Valley.

Corbin and I took out on this hike on a Saturday morning - but not quite as early as I would have liked. But when you're taking a 10-year-old hiking, I find it's best to let them sleep in first! Because of our later start and the lack of shade on this hike, we left the pups at home, although the hike is dog friendly.

We arrived at the hike and it was clear most people had opted to head out earlier and were finishing up. Still, for a San Diego county hike on a weekend morning, it was relatively quiet - far more so than similar hikes in the area.

We parked on the road and entered the gates, but made the mistake of following some others up the path to the right. We called it extra credit miles when we realized the actual trail was straight ahead. If you take the right path, you'll see the trailhead sign just at the bottom of the first hill. From there you'll go through a number of switch backs up the mountain, although some are confusing and there's a good bit of loose rock.

The flag on the top is a great visual that helped keep us focused on the end goal (well that and a promise of a milkshake for my son). With no shade, it's a toasty trail - so be sure to bring plenty of water and don't forget the sunscreen.

We didn't see any rattlesnakes, but we were told of one on the trail as we were making our descent. Corbin definitely enjoyed the downhill more than the up, taking in the sights as we made our way back. Although it was a good challenge, we saw several kids his age on the trail and he completed it without issue.