tecate peak

Can you think of anything better to do on Christmas day than take a 9-mile hike up a mountain? We couldn't. After a delish meal, we made the drive out to the border to take on what turned out to be our toughest hike yet.

• Trail: Tecate Peak (map)
• Location: Tecate Mountain on CA side of US/Mexico border
  
• Length: around 9 miles (up & down)
  
• Hike time: 1.5 hours up, just over an hour down
  
• Terrain: gravel road with some steep incline/decline and loose rocks at places
  
• Path visibility: Very clearly marked
  
• Difficulty: difficult
  
• Cost: free
  
• Highlight destination: summit: you did it!
  
• Beware: we have lots of tips about timing of hike & what to bring so check it out below
  

For Christmas, we wanted a longer hike & a great adventure. We could not have picked a more appropriate trail. After a relatively early Christmas feast, we set out for the US/Mexico border to take on 3880+ feet high Tecate Peak (on the California side).

According to our hike book, there is a lot of history associated with this location. Indian tribes used to climb to the summit for peace conferences. The Kumeyaay Indians also believed that the granitic boulders emanated holy powers.

The drive out to the peak took about 45 minutes, in Christmas traffic (that means no one was on the road). The drive itself was worth the journey. As we got further and further away from downtown San Diego, the terrain started looking closer to something out of sci-fi than urban SD! The boulders lining the roads and sitting atop burned out hills from the recent fires reminded both of us of Hollywood's version of another planet.

The directions from Schad on getting to the hike were great, so consult his before making this drive. About 1.6 miles after turning on to Highway 188, you will see an unpaved road on the right - it is just in front of the "International Border 15,000 feet" sign. Take that right. Then, be prepared for some serious off-roading for 2.8 miles. We're not talking smooth, often-traveled gravel roads here. There are patches of road with lots of big loose rocks on the thin one-car-at-a-time road.

If you feel like you are exceptionally close to Mexico it is because you are! You drive right along the border fence for sometime, pass several industrial lights they turn on toward the border at night & we saw border patrol as well.

You feel like you're almost driving up the mountain, because well, you are - until you get to the gate blocking the road. The gate was open when we went & even though Schad said to park beneath it there was a nice extra bit of road that looked good for parking right inside the gate so we did that with no problem (gate was still unlocked after dark when we got back to the car).

Next we looked for the trailhead. Trailhead? There is no official trailhead! You park at the gate & go. The entire journey is along this inclined mountain road that was constructed in 1958, which has restricted traffic. We didn't see one person or another car the entire hike. Save a few ATV engines humming in the distance, you would think we were the only ones out there.

It was about 4.5 miles up, and took us 1.5 hours to to top. There are way too many details for a single blog post, so I'll just try to cover the highlights.

The boulder and rock formations were the most amazing sites. Some were granite, some with red splashed on the side, and almost all were the most remarkable shapes and perched in the most peculiar positions along the mountain side. These are true landmarks & I was surprised how well I was able to remember them on the way down.

Sadly, the fires this fall had definitely been here (pdf of Harris Fire), as we saw several burned out areas and could almost trace the path of the blaze.

We noticed animal footprints along the road. Comparing what we saw to pictures of tracks online, I think they might have been from a coyote. We saw traces of our little friend all the way up, but never actually encountered anything.

Not far into the hike, you really get a great view of the twin cities of Tecate. On the California side it is much more rural than the Baja California side in Mexico. We were able to see the famous brewery on the Mexican side, & spotted a lake further off in the distance. Once at the top of the peak & on the other side of the mountain, we even swear we saw past Imperial Beach to the ocean. It was simply breathtaking!

At this point, the winds were pretty strong. We took a moment to enjoy the setting sun & look out over the surroundings, but knew we needed to get down as quickly as possible to make the most of the remaining light. This was our biggest mistake with this hike: we started too late in the day for such a long hike.

We ran about a mile down from the summit because the path was pretty solid with very little loose gravel to cause any falls. What fun! After that, it started getting a little dark so we slowed it down to stay safe.

Going down was almost as amazing as going up. Looking at the path before us, I was struck by how long & sharp the incline of some of the sections were. I did that? Wow! It was a remarkable chance to review your hike & a great moment to reveal in the pride of having made it to the top.

Even though it was challenging & we made a few poor decisions on this hike, it was worth it. If you know you can handle a hike of this caliber, put this one at the top of your list!

Based on our hike, there a lot of little tips we would give to anyone else trying this hike out:

• use a truck or other 4-wheel drive vehicle to get out there because the road leading up to the trail is not pleasant
  
• go in the morning, we went in the late afternoon & had the sun in our eyes the entire way up
• wear lots of layers because it was a gorgeous 70 or so in San Diego but much cooler at the trailhead then very windy in spots along the sides of the mountain
  
• give yourself enough time to get up - probably budget 4 hours for the hike itself
• don't be caught on the mountain after dark. We started down the mountain right at sunset (we just really wanted to make it to the top against better judgment!) and we ended up walking in pitch darkness for more than 40 minutes - resulting in me taking several spills & I was lucky enough not to really get anything more than a scrape
  
• don't go after heavy rains because there was a good deal of mud along the roads without having seen much rain, it would only be worse after a big rainfall
• this is better as a hike than a mountain bike excursion - I've seen pictures of people on the mountain on their bikes & after doing it I just don't know how that is possible. The inclines were a nice 15 degrees up in most places, but going up in long sections especially near the top. Also, the thought of riding a bike down this uneven, loosely graveled road seems dangerous too.
  
• take your cell phone - about 1/3 or the way up you might switch to a Mexican cell tower, but I still had great reception if something went wrong
  

Tipped off: We found this one in our trusty hiking book, new edition (May 2007) of Jerry Schad's Afoot & Afield in San Diego County. Schad has another, very similar write-up online we found after the hike.