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Description:
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On a clear day, you can see the Pacific Ocean and San Diego from the top of 6140' Mt. Palomar! Today, we'll cover a wide variety of terrain, including thick forests of pine, oak, fir & cedar, as well as mountain meadows filled with bracken fern and wildflowers.We'll be hiking at about the 5400' level, so be sure to bring sunscreen. Before our scheduled hikes, we'll pay a visit to the Palomar Observatory, home to the famous 200" Hale Telescope.
Car pools will depart San Diego by 9:15 am. Target time to meet at the observatory parking lot in Palomar Mt. State Park is 11:00 am. After a brief tour the observatory, we'll then hike down the 2.2 mile trail to the Observatory Campground, where several staged vehicles will be available to shuttle us back up the road to our parked cars. (Several of our members are planning to camp overnight on Saturday at the Observatory Campground. For details contact Cyberhiker@SanDiegoTrailTramps.com)
From there, we'll drive over to the Palomar Mountain State Park, pay the $6.00 day use fee, park at the Silver Crest Picnic Area, and begin our hike of the Scott's Cabin/Boucher Hill loop. Hiking distance will be about 3 miles on the loop trail. Elevation gain/loss is about 800'/800' on the loop trail.
This is one of our most popular hikes of the year, so come join the fun! For more detailed info. on the area, refer to "Afoot and Afield in San Diego County" by J.Schad, 1998 Edition, Area M-2: Palomar Mountain, Trip 5, pp.137-138, AND Trip 1, pp.131-133. Also, check out our Maps of the area for more details and directions to print out and take along.
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