I read a lot about this trail, seems it's one of the more popular trails in San Diego. Maybe because of the potato chip but likely because of the close proximity to San Diego proper.

Either way, if you do the trail early enough and on a week day you should encounter almost no crowd. I started at just after 7am and folks were already coming back down, from where I'm not sure but probably just the potato chip.

Trails deets:

There is a proper hill to climb almost as soon as you start. Not a ton of shade on this part, or frankly a lot of the trail, so keep that in mind if you decide to do this one later in the day. The trail is really well maintained all the way up but this part has places to stop and sit and the first mile even has port-o-potties! Just past the last set of potties the Mt Woodson trail starts. It's pretty much an uphill climb all the way but it's not too crazy, I clocked somewhere around 2k feet of ascent over just short of 4 miles.

The Mt Woodson trail is pretty great, lots of stone steps, lots of switchbacks, hella great views, giant boulders, and even though it's all uphill you're not killing yourself to do it.

Just before you get to Potato Chip rock, if you're paying attention, you'll see a sign that reads “end of city maintained trail.” Well let me tell ya, it isn't fairies that take care of the rest of it. There were 3 older men, had to be in their 60's, with pitch forks and shovels moving small boulders and digging rain washes just to make sure the trail remains usable the rest of the way up. I stopped to chat with one of them for a minute and thanked every one of them and if you happen to see them up there please do the same. The one I chatted with said not many people notice and even fewer say anything!

Potato Chip rock is a great deal smaller than I expected, perspective amirite! Still pretty cool, so I snapped an obligatory photo.

The rest of the way to the peak is a paved maintenance road and the peak is covered with radio towers but if you walk around a bit you'll find some pretty rad views, no peak marker that I could find.

To sum it up…

Go early

Go on a weekday

And don't forget to say “thank you” to those beautiful guys maintaining the trail!