Uphill Both Ways on El Cajon Mtn

I hiked this on Memorial Day weekend when the County of SD and the SD Parks Foundation organizes the Warrior Challenge Hike. There are aid stations with snacks and water at mile 1 and 3, as well as Polaris vehicles going up and down the trail transporting volunteers and those who may need assistance.

The hike is pretty constant up and down with not much flat.  Lots of great views and beautiful flowers all along the trail.  There are opportunities to go to some caves off the main trail.

As you get a closer to the summit, there’s a rusted out jeep on your right.  I leave my extra water here so I don’t have to carry it to the summit and back if I don’t need it.  You just have to remember to get it on the way back.

There is a junction in the trail where you can go straight to El Capitan summit (never done this) or go to your left to El Cajon Mtn summit.  It’s another mile, give or take, to the summit and there’s a metal sign attached to a metal post for your photo op.  You could also do the El summit as long as you think you have enough left in your legs for the equally hard hike back.

At the end, I got a cool 10 year anniversary coin for this challenge.