Palomar Observatory Trail Hike

The third hike of this week August 16th, 2014: Palomar Observatory Trail Hike. Coney and I went up to Palomar Mountain off the Highway 76 in San Diego area and visited the Palomar Observatory Astronomical Telescope and hike the trail associated with it.

Its a place embedded deep into the Cleveland National Forest at Palomar Mountain. Its a 4.4 mile / 2.5 hour hike set at about 5000 ft above sea level. The trail has a 600 feet elevation gain from the Parking lot of Observatory camp site parking Lot.

Although we did this hike on a hot August day, it wasn't as dehydrating as other hikes we did since the hiking trail goes through the shade of numerous pines and oak trees at Cleveland National Forest thus protecting us from the sweltering heat of the summer sun. The trail is well graded gravel which means its not hard on the feet even with just running shoes for hiking gear.

Midway through the trail you'll see the Mendenhall Valley below, which feels like you've been transferred to some Alpine scene in Switzerland. Hike further up the trail and you'll reach the Palomar Observatory and its 200 inch Hale Telescope. If you're into Astronomy, you can perhaps explore how the telescope works and learn about billions of galaxies from our Universe.

Click on the image below to view our pictures