Cedar Creek Falls Hike Recap {San Diego Area}

“Climb mountains not so that the world can see you, but so you can see the world.”

Happy Friday!

Any fun Super Bowl or weekend plans? Speaking of the weekend, today I’m hopping back a few weekends to talk about where I spent part of my MLK Jr. holiday:

When I found out that both my hubby and I had no plans for the Monday holiday I had off, I decided that it’d be a great day to try a new hiking trail in the area. Since Southern Cali has gotten a good amount of rain recently (well, for here at least!), I thought it’d be cool to check out a waterfall hike. We decided to head out to the Cedar Creek Falls Trail – a hiking spot located in a town called Ramona about an hour from my house.

It’s crazy what a difference an hour, or even really a 15-minute drive out of the San Diego city areas makes. Within no time at all we were waving at people riding horses next to us (no joke!) and admiring acres upon acres of citrus trees and farmland.

Cedar Creek Falls was a hike I had looked into doing a couple years back the first time we lived in the San Diego area, but it was closed for awhile due to a teenager falling 80 feet to his death at the waterfall. Apparently back then the hike was a little out of control with people drinking alcohol, jumping from cliffs, and needing to be rescued because they were unprepared for the hike and hot temperatures.

But that was back then, and now, ever since the park reopened, it seems like a much different story. To hike at Cedar Creek Trails, a day permit must be purchased ahead of time. I bought the permit online the night before thinking there was little chance it’d be asked for by anyone, but as soon as we hopped out of our cars and headed over towards the trail, a park employee was there waiting to see our permit. Once we made it to the waterfall, there was another park employee hanging out sort of monitoring the area. Sadly enough, it seems that the park is only taking necessary precautions given the circumstances.

Since the rain has been flowing in the area, we thought that the Cedar Creek waterfall nearby must be flowing too. Right? Wrong. As soon as we got to the park, the park employee informed us that while there was a large pool of stagnant water at the bottom of the waterfall, the water itself wasn’t flowing.

That was definitely a bummer to find out, but I was glad I knew ahead of time, because it would have been an even bigger bummer to trek to the waterfall anticipating something that wasn’t there. The park employee said that because the area has been experiencing such a severe drought, even though it has been raining lately, he thinks the ground has just been soaking up all of the moisture, leaving little water to drip down the falls.

On the bright side, the views were gorgeous pretty much from the get go of the trail, the weather was great for hiking, and the hike was a good workout!

It took us about an hour to hike to the waterfall, so it’s not too long of a hike – especially when you’re learning how to use your new GoPro like me and staring at these views the whole time:

Once we made it to the waterfall area, we took a water and snack break and hung out for a few. The area is not very conducive to “hanging out” per se, especially with a pup who won’t sit still. It’s super rocky and there’s not too much room, so while there were other people relaxing there, I was glad it wasn’t too crowded.

The man pictured above jumped in right after I snapped this photo, and from the sounds he made, I think it was some damn cold water. The temperature, coupled with the fact that it looked murky and stagnant, means you’d have to pay me to jump in there! 

Once we had our fill, we were on our merry way back up the trail. Now, getting to the waterfalls isn’t a hard hike, as it’s mostly downhill, but since it’s a out-and-back route, you know what that means… getting back was all uphill!

You might read otherwise if you consult with some of the hiking site reviews online, but the hike wasn’t ridiculously challenging or anything. It was a pretty steady incline so while I was working up a sweat and getting my heart rate pumping, it wasn’t crazy hard….

…though, from the look of Harley in this picture, it looks like she’s pretty pooped!

Side note: Nowadays when I read review on hiking sites, I take it with a grain of salt. People were saying that “they nearly died” doing this hike because it was so tough. Well yea, if you go when it’s 100 degrees out, you never ever workout, and this is the first hike you’ve been on in awhile, it probably feels pretty challenging. But if you’re in decent shape and prepare accordingly (Um, bring water people! Being dehydrated because they didn’t bring water was seriously one of the common complaints on the hiking sites.) it’s not all that bad. 

I do want to add that I would never bring Harley here in the summer months. The park attendant told me that temperatures reach up to 20 degrees warmer down towards the waterfalls, and that in the summer months it routinely hits 110 degrees. Yikes, that’s a little too warm to hike for me! In my opinion, even over 85 is too hot for dogs to be hiking long distances, let alone triple digits. I read about dogs having heat strokes on this trail, and I can’t help but feel that bringing your dog in that kind of heat is just irresponsible. Harley was getting tired towards the end, and it was only in the 70s.

When all was said and done, the hike took us about 2 1/2 hours, which is just about the perfect amount of time for a half-day hike (+ 2 hours of driving). And as you can see above, A captured me doing a few yoga poses along the trail on the way back! I love having my go-to hiking spots, but it’s also fun to try new trails out. Maybe we’ll try another waterfall hike again in a few months…. We’ll see if the more frequent rain keeps up in the San Diego area first!

Tell me… Have you ever done a waterfall hike? What are your workout plans for this weekend?