Clevenger Canyon North is a trail located in the SoCal countryside in the town of Ramona.
I first heard about this hike when checking out a hiking book that covers trails within 60 miles of San Diego. Not surprisingly, I’ve already done most of the hikes that are moderate to difficult, but I jotted down a few that I hadn’t done before, and Clevenger Canyon was one of them.
Located in the town of Escondido, the Clevenger Canyon North trailhead is located just off of a mountainous, winding road called Route 78. As per usual, we past it at first and my GPS was telling us to turn into a nonexistent parking lot, but we came across it as once we turned around. 
Unfortunately, at the start of the hike there’s a lot of graffiti and broken bottles. It’s kind of annoying because you’ve got this beautiful view, with things like, “Thelma and Louise bitches” written all over the rocks. People must drive out of their way to drink beer right at the start of the trail, and then break the bottles everywhere before they leave. I just don’t at all understand the need that people have to ruin pretty natural areas, but I digress. Here’s a pretty view sans the graffiti:
Once you get past that initial area, the hike is much nicer. There are views of mountains around and orange tree farmland below, and after you wind down past a little creek a few minutes into the hike, there’s a steady incline that’s not extreme but at the same time is a good workout that keeps your heart rate up. 
The trail gets kind of faint in certain areas, and you can tell that a lot of people make shortcuts, which sometimes seemed more prominent than what was supposed to be the main trail. At one point we got off course and had to kind of rock climb our way back to the right trail, but there is signage to indicate that you’re on the right trail every so often.
We made it to the top in around 80 minutes, where we hung out for a minute, hydrated, gave our pup a break to chill in the shade, and of course snapped a few pics.
There’s always time for yoga shenanigans on big boulders during hiking excursions:
The weather was in the 70s with a nice breeze, but Harley for some reason was getting really tuckered out. She kept trying to lay down in shaded areas on the way back out. In the below photo, she was cracking us up because she kept trying to lay down on this angled ground underneath a boulder and completely sliding down:
We gave her some slack and blamed it on the rabies shot that she had the day before making her sluggish, and my hubby wound up carrying her for a little while. It’s a hilarious sight: She was just hanging out with her tongue out, as if she was a lapdog and not a 50-pound dingo: 
All in all, the hike was around 6 miles. It took us a little over 2 1/2 hours, and was a great workout!
Afterwards, my hubby and I rehydrated with some watermelon strawberry smoothies, then headed to the beach to relax a bit and soak up some late afternoon sunshine.
Hiking + the beach = a very SoCal-ish kind of day!
Tell me… What workouts did you do over the weekend? What was the last smoothie you drank?
haha I love that pic of him carrying your pup!! Emma does that sometimes … if it’s really hot she starts trying to get to shade!
What a fun weekend! And getting to meet up with other bloggers! That something I wish I did more of … although I don’t really know any that live near me!
Yup, if she’s hot, she says screw it and heads for the shade! Haaa.
Meeting up with other bloggers is so much fun. Would love to meet up some time if we wound up in the same area! 🙂
Cute pants!!
I am so jealous of your blogger meet up! 🙂 Are you going to Blogfest this year? I’m going to be back in the states when it is happening . . .
That farm is super cute!
Thank ya! They’re from Carrie Underwood’s new line CALIA and I love em! Not sure if you’ve checked it out yet, but there’s a ton of cute stuff in the line.
Not sure yet about Blogfest – I’ll be traveling to the East coast a week or two after that in the end of July, so I don’t yet know if I could fit both in. Are you considering going? Hmm, I’m going to text you to further discuss your summer plans sometime soon!
Oh my gosh I love your dog!! She is too cute. That hike looks great and I love the yoga pics!
Thank you, thank you! Harley is an entertaining pup for sure.
Yay for blogger meets ups, jealous!! 🙂 your dog is adorable btw, I like how he is watching you do your yoga pose, ha!
Yup, she typically stays close during my yoga sessions and when I bust out yoga poses during hikes haha and when I work out at home, she always runs into the room all excited and jumps on me. It’s like she’s saying, “Mom! You’re playing in here?! Let’s jump around together and play!!” Silly pup!
That hike looks like so much fun! And I love the yoga poses from the top:) No better way to refuel after than with a delicious, cold smoothie!
Agreed, refreshing smoothies are THE BEST!
What a stunning place to go for a hike. It looks like your dog had fun too 🙂
I wish there was somewhere near me like this, I would be hiking there every day.
I definitely love living near so many hiking spots, and try to take advantage of it once a week! I think that I especially appreciate it having grown up where there were pretty much no mountains.
COME BACK TO SAN DIEGO TOMORROW!!!! THAT IS WHEN I AM GOING! 😀 😀
The girls mentioned something about meeting up with you!! Let me know next time you’re in town, and I’ll shoot you a note the next time I’m up near LA.
Hiking + the beach?! This is why I must move to California!! Looks like a blast! 🙂 Way to be with your yoga!! SO impressive! …also, that smoothie looks SO refreshing! Perf way to rehydrate! 🙂
Ah yes, California living is totally my thing!! 🙂
This Saturday I went Hiking with my Mom for Mother’s Day and found a few spots that we had never known of before that were incredibly close to her house. The weather in MN was beautiful sunny but not overly hot or windy. The last smoothie I drank was a homemade green smoothie with fresh mango watermelon and spinach.
Nice, I love when I find new cool places nearby that I didn’t even know were there!
That looks like so much fun! Beautiful pictures! Those pb&j bars >>>>> !
Okay so I refrigerated them afterwards and then they were sticking together fine, soooo I think I need to make them again, just chill them before cutting, and then they’ll be good to go… so stay tuned for the recipe! 😉
It was so nice to meet you finally! That hike looks awesome too (minus the graffiti – why DO people do that?!). You find the best spots! I’m going to hit you up for a hike when I get back in town. 🙂
Because people are big fat jerks!! LOL. YESSS talk to you soon!
Ah, the pictures of Harley gave me a good laugh! I love how she just chills on your husbands neck.
The whole weekend looks like perfection! I’d be miffed about the graffiti and garbage too though. Such a shame.
I hope you give those PB + J bars another shot because they look awesome!
She’s ridiculous! 😉
Thank ya, the PB + J bars will be made again soon and photographed – stay tuned!
So much sunshine I love it! Almost as much as I love your workout crops. I’ve never put watermelon in a smoothie but I bet it’s so good and hydrating. You’re really making a case for me moving to California….
Thanks girl, they’re CALIA pants! Okay yes you MUST try watermelon smoothies – they are so good. Come visit Cali!!! I have a spare bedroom 🙂