Update: Readers Favor Mesa Trail as Their Favorite Hike in Santee Area

The hikers have spoken, and Mesa Road Trail is the winner.  Readers gave this hike four thumbs up in competition with 14 other local outdoorsy options. And a good pick it is.

As Cynthia Robertson wrote recently:

Most of the trails linked up with Mission Trails Regional Park are ones that people are familiar with. But there is another, more hidden entrance into the park.

Santee resident Winona Sollock told me about this trail. At the very end of Mesa Road after it changes from a paved road to a dirt road riddled with potholes, is a gate with a place to park.

“Walk up the path just a few hundred yards from the gate, and you’ll see a little waterfall,” she had told me.

The afternoon that I arrived at this hidden gem of a trail, the air was crisp and cool after a two-week long siege of rain. Water was running in rivulets down the path. Cirrus clouds were spackled across the sky.

Hundreds of small birds twittered in the branches of chaparral as I began walking up the path. I heard the sound of water rushing before I actually saw it off to my right.

“I went all the way to Cowles mountain,” he said. “I used to go up to Cowles Mountain from Golfcrest and Navajo on the other side. Better view up here, less crowded. From now on I’m using this trail.”