Bernardo Mountain Summit Trail // Escondido, CA

Hi everyone!

Hope that you had a fun, rejuvenating weekend. My weekend was pretty low-key, and one of the highlights was hiking a new local trail called Bernardo Mountain with my little family.

Located in the town of Escondido within the 55-mile-long San Dieguito River Park along Lake Hodges, Bernardo Mountain is a dog-friendly trail that offers pretty views of San Diego County – and of the many mansions in the area.

Bernardo Mountain is an out-and-back hike that’s about 7.2 miles roundtrip. It was easy for us to get to the park from North County by driving east on Rt 78, hopping on I-15, and parking at the end of Sunset Drive.

The trail starts off as a concrete walkway, where you walk underneath I-15 and find yourself next to Lake Hodges. I imagine that the reservoir was once much more full and roaring. Oh California drought. 

The hike started off kind of slow as we walked on the concrete path and around the lake for a good 1.5 miles or so before hitting the trailhead. Once we hit the Bernardo Mountain trail, it was a nice slow ascend up. We never were out of breath climbing, but it was a nice slow burn.

We passed some people walking around the lake, but once we started to ascend up the mountain, they weren’t many hikers around for a Saturday afternoon. We did see a good amount of mountain bikers. I think that A and I may return back to go biking soon, as it seemed like a good trail to try out on our bikes.

A couple of notable things along the trail were how green the scenery was and how many gorgeous homes were around. We definitely enjoyed checking out the luxurious houses throughout the hike.

Towards the end of the hike, we passed the odd trail scenery of a huge water tank surrounded by barbed wire fence. This is the part of the hike that seemed most strenuous, with deeper ascends than the rest of the hike. It’s nothing too crazy, but it gets your heart pumping a bit.

We reached the rocky summit in about 1 hour and 45 minutes. I had read on Modern Hiker that the hike would take a total of 2 1/2 hours, so we were a bit surprised with how much longer the roundtrip hike actually took us. We usually take less time to hike a trail than suggested online, not more! Modern Hiker must have had quick feet the day that he hiked it.

Speaking of the top, a box sits at the mountain’s summit with journals from people that had hiked it before. I always love checking these types of books out and flipping through, and I also left a little note in there myself.

One of the entries was from a woman who was celebrating her first day of retirement after working for the same company for 40+ years with a hike with her cousins.

It made me think about what we were celebrating that day. A free weekend together. Mild temperatures with a mix of sun and clouds – the best hiking weather. Being healthy and capable. Having a crazy puppy that makes for a fun hiking partner. 

Speaking of my crazy pup, she was mesmerized at the summit by the many butterflies and bugs that were whizzing around up there. I’m not sure why they love the Bernardo Mountain summit, but there was no shortage of them up there!

After a couple of minutes of resting, getting water, and eating a snack, we made our way down the way that we hiked up.

We came across a snake on our way back, which we later decided was a gopher snake. I’m not sure about you guys.. but I don’t care if it’s dangerous to humans or not, when I see a snake – any type of snake – I steer clear! I also get nervous about Harley getting bit by one, though she has proven time and time again to be completely oblivious to snakes.

When all was said and done, we finished the hike in a solid 3 1/2 hours. Bernardo Mountain is a trail of moderate difficulty, and I burned a good 1,050 calories hiking it.

We refueled on the way home with protein fruit smoothies from Jamba Juice, and later on I made these awesome nachos for dinner:

Tortilla chips topped with Lundberg Farms brown rice, beans, pico de gallo, avocado, tomato from my garden and shredded organic cheddar. So good!

Tell me… Did you do any fun workouts last weekend?