Laguna Mountain - Full Tour Of The Mountain

Red Tail Roost Loop Trail

 I strung together an 18 mile loop hike for an entire tour of the mountain starting and ending at the Red Tail Roost Volunteer center. I took part of the red tail roost loop trail to the big laguna trail to the sunset trail to a spur trail to the noble canyon trail to the pacific crest trail back to the Red Tail Roost.

Red Tail Roost Loop Trail

Red Tail Roost Loop Trail ( Incense Cedar )

Red Tail Roost Loop Trail 

Red Tail Roost Loop Trail

Red Tail Roost Loop Trail ( Turkey Vulture )

Red Tail Roost Loop Trail 

Big Laguna Trail

Big Laguna Trail

Big Laguna Trail

Big Laguna Trail

Big Laguna Trail ( Mountain Garter Snake )

Big Laguna Trail

Big Laguna Trail ( Water Of The Woods )

Sunset Trail

Sunset Trail

Sunset Trail

Sunset Trail 

Spur Trail To Noble Canyon Trail

Pacific Crest Trail

PCT ( View Of Anza Borrego Desert )

PCT ( Miles Of Manzanita )

PCT

PCT

Laguna Mountain and Kitchen Creek Falls

I was up before the sunrise. I tried to encourage my daughter and her friends on last time to go with me, but they wanted city life for the day. I changed up the itinerary a little and geared up to go up to Laguna mountain and hike to an un-named peak in the snow and the several more miles out to Laguna Meadows and back. I accomplished this hike and I have to tell you. it was only a several hundred foot climb to the top of the mountain but it was really cool to hike this peak in the snow that no one really hikes up to. It was just me and the dear tracks. After comming back down off of the mountain I followed and old dirt road out to the Big Laguna Trail where I followed a cross country skier's tracks out to Laguna Meadows. After I was done with this hike I Drove down to the southern slopes of the Laguna mountains to the Kitchen Creek Falls trailhead. I hiked in to the falls and explored downstream of the falls and also well upstream of the falls. Great day of hiking. I did around 8 miles on Laguna mountain and around 5 or 6 miles in the Kitchen Creek Area. I made a video of this hike as well and it is on my youtube channel. See the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0Hj8qq44i8

Laguna Mtn Camping

We headed out to go Camping on Friday evening. We got up into the lower slopes of the Laguna Mountains around 9:45 to Cibbets Flats campground. We quickly realized that it was very cold and to top it off, the campground was full. We then wound our way up near the highest parts of the mountain at around 6000 feet to Burnt Rancheria campground and found a great camp site. COLD ! First things first, we got the fire going and then everything started to fall into place as we helped each other set up our tents. We had a great time that first night around the fire. There was just a sliver of moon and the stars were brilliant. Several hours later we were all dozing off to sleep warm in our bags.

The next morning My sisters dog "Banjo" and I woke before everyone else. I got the coffee going and took a little morning hike up to the peak directly behind our camp. The grasses were green, The flowers were blooming and the Black Oaks were all full of fresh new green leaves. I sat on top of the peak taking in the views and enjoying a few minutes of solitude and silence in the forest.



After breakfast we all geared up for a hike down the mountain a ways up into the Cottonwood Creek drainage. Other than hundreds of flies buzzing around our heads from time to time, the creek was nice and flowing pretty good this year.










After the hike we headed back to camp for a great lunch and some lounging around and napping.

Linda and I woke up and were ready to hike again. Everyone else was still in relax mode. We hiked up and caught a spur trail connecting to the Pacific Crest Trail. We hiked along the edge of the forest overlooking some mountain and desert views while winding in and out of Pine forest and pinyon-Juniper zone. Later that night we got an invite to go to the observatory on the mountain and look throu a 21 inch lense telescope up at the moon, the stars and the planets...Linda and I went and it was amazing---Super Cool.
Anyway, we spent the rest of the weekend touring around the mountain checking out the eastern escarpment down to the Anza Borrego Desert and driving out of the mountains by way of Pine Valley Road which is a nice adventure in itself.