Exploring San Diego - Mushroom Caves

We've been lucking out on finding some pretty cool places to explore recently. But maybe that's not a hard thing to do when you live in San Diego. We're always asking new people we meet for recommendations, and I often research "must-see" places in our area online.
One place caught my eye that I hadn't heard anyone mention before, which shocked me. It looked so fun! So as soon as we had a free morning, Eric and I went to explore Mushroom Caves Trailhead (Annie's Canyon Trail).

It started off like any other hike.

Then started getting a little rockier.


Then canyon walls started towering over us.




And the trail started to narrow...



and narrow some more...


We were sandwiched between beautiful canyon walls.

If you look on the ground you'll see our little sand pathways.

There were also lots of little caves to explore off the main trail.


Had to stop to take in a little sunshine.


Below is a better view of our actual trail and about how wide it was.

At this point in the picture below, the trail started getting steeper. With the sand it could be tough to get a good footing.


We were almost to the top - last thing we needed to do was climb up this ladder.


We made it!

It was such a beautiful view at the top. Believe it or not, despite how it looks in pictures - it's actually not an extremely difficult hike. It's not too long and for the most part it's flat until you get to the end. We saw a 3 year old boy with his dad, we saw a women carrying a baby, and a man carrying a large dog.



Things like this are what make me love living in San Diego. All the beautiful things there are to see and do, and being able to get out like this in the middle of winter. We thoroughly enjoyed this hike and plan to do it again!