First time on Black Mountain

Drove down to Rancho open space with my husband to start our hike at 7:15 AM and the parking lots were already filling. Glad we went early! This is a very popular park and we ran into more of our hiking/ running friends and had an expanded group hike to the peak. We got a little turned around and ended up taking a longer route back down, but it was fine exploration.

February was a perfect month for this hike, as I am told it can get brutally hot in summer. The way up was beautiful, lots of ferns, a few wildflowers, poison oak, and good views.