Potato Chip Rock

Potato Chip Rock is probably one of the more iconic San Diego hiking destinations and for good reason it has a unique photo op and people love it. Although there are a couple ways up to the rock my favorite being from Lake Poway this trip being that I live in Ramona we went from the Mt Woodson (Ramona) side.

The Lake Poway offers a real trail and starts at Lake Poway with some awesome views although there is paid parking on the weekends and its close to ten. Iles round trip you also have the bait shop at the lake with cold drinks and I really suggest going this way for a cooler experience.

The Mt Woodson side features terrifying side of the highway parking which is limited not facilities and you need to make sure you pack out your trash. It is around five miles round trip up a paved service road which is quite steep. Because of the distance and free parking though this seems to be a popular approach.

We started at 0520 so we had good parking but there were already cars parking and people on the trail. We beat sunrise although it was already getting light, and we enjoyed the hike as the sun came up and Ramona was covered in the early morning marine layer.

I was hiking with our good friend David and this was his first trip up, so it was fun to share this with him. From the Ramona side its funny because you get to go over the summit and then down the dirt road a little way and you can miss the “entrance” to the rock if the line hasn’t already formed, haha.

Like I said we were there early so no crowds just a couple locals and we had a decent amount of time to take in the view and grab some new profile pics haha. Im not big on heights so I spent as little time on the rock as possible, but David was a champ and enjoyed the view and playing around on the rock.

As the crowds started coming down, we decided to head back and could see more and more people coming up for their early morning hike. This is defiantly a cool place to check out.



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