When you run into a random trail runner who asks “Excuse me, do you know what all this craziness is?” you realize you may have made a mistake.

South Ridge to El Cajon requires navigation and class 3 scrambling and some areas where you honestly should have a rope to get up but there we were, ropeless and nowhere to go but up or down.

The first and last part of the trail are both actual trails but the middle part (the difficult part) is not. We wouldn't have gotten there without the map so I highly recommend downloading it off  Alltrails if you try to take this route because it is not at all intuitive.

The trail starts off the highway, not at a school parking lot like Alltrails makes you think. If you go to the coordinates, there's a turn out you can park at. The beginning of the trail has a board that goes over a dry stream.

This part of the trail is fairly obvious. You'll take a small path and end up a wider trail and you'll make a left. About a mile in (total) you'll make a right turn up a pretty steep hill (keep your eye on the map, we missed it the first time) and that's where the craziness begins. It just gets steeper and steeper the more you go up.

There are several trails that go in and out but try to look for the black dots painted on the rocks to get to the route. Somewhere along the way the dots disappear which is incredibly helpful… but as long as you continue going up to the top of the plateau you will get there.

Once you get to the top of the plateau there is another official trail so use your Alltrails map to get you to it if. You'll then take that trail until you join the official “other” trail at the base of El Cajon/El Capitan.

I also recommend wearing sturdy shoes. I usually wear trail runners and they were demolished, so actual hiking boots would be better. On the way down, keep your eye on the map again once you get to the end of the crazy trail and the beginning of the flatter one, as we again missed our turn off to get to the car.

We started around 6:15 but I wish we'd started earlier because the heat did get to us, although we were treated to the sunrise even at that time. Also, on the way back down we saw a sign that said the trail we were using was closed. They don't have *anything* at the start of the trail, though, and we had to make it back to the car soooo.

I want to stress that this route is NOT for inexperienced climbers. If you don't have a ton of experience you have no business being on this trail and should just go to the up hill both ways suffer fest of the normal route.

There is one section in particular that is pretty tough to pass both coming and going. It's a decent drop to a somewhat small ledge and was super scary coming down, especially. I recommend having gloves to help with grip to help you feel more secure. My hands were TORN UP after this and my arms still hurt three days later.

Everyone knows I'm a big exaggerator for comedic effect, but I'm pretty confident in my hiking skills and this threw me for a loop. When my hiking partner said she felt unsure and that I seemed way more sure of myself I knew there was a huge problem because I was pretty much screaming in terror inside. Definitely not a trail you want to do on your own.

Even with the insanity I prefer this over the other route but you NEED to have a good deal of navigation and technical experience. If you are afraid of heights this is a def no go.