Hellhole Canyon Open Space Preserve

This past weekend, I hiked Hellhole Canyon. The whole damn thing. Up the mountain, down the mountain. Make sure you are in relative shape before making the hike. I’m not and two days later I can barely walk. I digress…
My GPS had no problem finding the location in which to park. When you arrive, you’ll find two well maintained out houses, a trailer for whomever I’m assuming manages this property, and water for you and your four legged friend (dog and horse variety). Oh… And MAPS! Take a map…
What I think is great about this location is that you can choose your experience. You can enjoy a shorter four mile scenic route (easy to moderate, depending on the route) or you can follow the parameters and take an eight + mile moderate to hard route. Either way, the views are amazing. The trails are well marked.

This hike is more of an exploration than a hike. When my boyfriend and I stared out on the trail (the trailhead is at the parking lot), we started off on well defined trail. After about a mile and a half, we had to take a more, «do you see footprints over there? Let’s follow them.» But to be honest, that make it more fun. Moderate scrambling, but the scrambling comes once you make it to the palm oasis and trickling waterfall, and it’s not much. Overall, with the temperatures in the mid 80s, we had an awesome day, other than coming home with a few burrs.

This hike is absolutely horrendous. Originally planning on another hike with friends last weekend, and that places passes had sold out, so we stumbled upon this hike on Unilocal.Very intrigued by the name as we are all metal loving freaks of nature, we decided to give it a try! The entire loop is something like 8 miles? With no water in sight and the only shade is if you lay underneath a small bush, this place is very suited for its name Hellhole. 6 of us, mostly in good shape, mid-​afternoon, made it half way and decided to turn back. We would love to try it again and do the whole route.
Seriously, bring way more water than you ever do. SERIOUSLY you’re gonna need it. A hat, sunscreen, music, no dogs cause they’d probably die.
I highly recommend this to anyone in or out of shape. It’s a b**ch½ and you will feel so amazing after you conquer near death experiences in Hellhole.

Great hike…
Just come back the same way you went up. I tried an alternate route down that was marked on the map yet the trail wasn’t well marked and it had multiple false trails that lead me way out of my way and had to do some bushwhacking to get back.

Whenever the hubby & I go on a road trip, we like to find points of interest and check them out.
I was looking at the Google map of the area…
Me– «Hellhole Canyon. That sounds interesting. It’s not too far off our path.»
Exploration fail.
And, it’s on me. I’M A BIG CHICKEN!
We find the sign pointing the way and started up the road.
I’m looking at its Unilocal page and read the first few reviews. «Hmmm, I don’t think we’ll pass muster with this Tim guy. He’d take one look at me in my Skecher walking shoes & cup of iced coffee and laugh.»
Then I see the pics of the mountain lion paw print & the snake.
Oh hell no.
«Turn around! Turn around!»
This hiking trail is best left to the experienced brave folks.
Definitely not for the unprepared (us) out for a spur-​of-​the-​moment adventure.
(We went to go eat at the Pauma buffet instead.)
O_​o

I enjoyed a relaxed hike through here. Beautiful and peaceful like the pic I posted. Was expecting to see other hikers but I didn’t see any one in the 90 min there.

My friend and I hiked Hellhole Canyon on June 8^th, 2014. We did the full 13.5 mile hike and loved it. We only saw three people on the whole hike. If you can get to the top the views are amazing. Bring lots of water and sunscreen. One of the best parts about it was the park host. I believe his name is Tim Jeffries. He is a volunteer. He met us at the beginning of the hike and showed us on a map where all the trails were. He made sure we were equipped with the correct attire and made sure we had plenty of water. He even offered his cell number in case something happened to us on the trail. He was very friendly and informative. The hike also had well marked trails so you could not get lost. This hike is not for beginners.

We ride our horses through hellhole on a weekly basis and love it. It has very little traffic and makes for a peaceful ride.

A place of extreme misery.
I hike here alone during the summer months to challenge myself. Kinda like my own personal walkabout.
The other reviewers did a good job of describing this place, but here are a few additional points to be aware of.
— Wear a big hat. Look this isn’t opening day at Del Mar so no need to be worried about style points. I bought my sombrero at the local Mexican grocery store.
— Bring more water than you would normally drink in a whole day. Trust me on this. Also bring an apple or two.
— It took me 2 hours to hike from the parking lot to the top of the viewpoint. However, I was fully prepared to make the trek up there. This place is HOT and there is very little shade.
— Some trails are overgrown and some are very hard to follow. I’ve deviated from the trail a few times by accident (specifically heading west on the ocean trail).
— Not a lot of people hike these trails, so you’re in a world of hurt if you get stuck. Cell phone service is spotty.
— The top viewpoint is worth the hike. Make sure you do the full loop counterclockwise.
Mountain Lion Tracks. Beware!
Air Rescue — Don’t let this be you!

Unfortunately I went out there to discover it is closed the month of August 2012. It will reopen Sept 1, 2012.

This was my 2^nd attempt to do Hellhole and it went a lot better than the first! My recommendation is to go early in the year. I went in mid to late May and honestly, since there is virtually no tree coverage or shade and by the end of the hike it got up to over 90 degrees.
The park had clean restrooms (porta potty but nicer since it was a whole room) and a water fountain right at the beginning. Many lf the plants were marked in the beginning. When we arrived, we met Tim who lives there. I believe he may have been a ranger. He gave us a trail map, inspected our shoes and water supply. I had 70oz of water and he felt that was too little so he gave me 32 more ounces (and BOY was he right!!). He also gave us suggestions for which way to go given the treads on our shoes and sent us on our way.
The trails were somewhat overgrown in areas, but we had no problem finding our way. The hike to the top of the mountain was nice and the view was nice. Upon coming down the mountain, there was a nice breeze on part of the trail which was very welcoming. The only area of confusion was when we came to a fork in the trail and mis-​read the map, but once we realized our error we got out of dodge!
The hardest part of the hike for me was becuase I didn’t pace myself. We managed to rock it up the mountain, but you have about 1 mile uphill at the very end of the hike. By that time it was in its 90s, my water was running low (did I mention Tim was my hero that day) and it was very challenging to keep going.
The trails were very desolate, which is both good and bad. It was nice not to be crawling over people, but in 4 hours we only saw 3 sets of people. One who was going solo, and two groups.

First, the good:
–HCOSP has a very good variety of plants, trees, and wildlife along with nice views of the surrounding mountains and Indian reservations. Many plants are labeled with descriptions and the first mile or so is very well maintained.
–There’s a nice creek bed that may be the highlight of the hike. The shade provided here is a welcome contrast to the majority of the preserve, which is nearly entirely exposed to the sun and heat.
I followed the route suggested in my hiking book, which was published in 2007. This took me along the old Escondido Canal and eventually to Canyon View Trail. Here I encountered a problem. There was a fork in the trail and my book was not clear about which way to go. The route to the left was marked as temporarily closed so I continued straight ahead on Canyon View Trail.
As of today, Canyon View Trail is at first well maintained but quickly becomes overgrown and extremely difficult to follow. I am a fairly experienced hiker but the trail was so bad that I had to double back several times thinking the trail was veering off one way when it wasn’t. There were many footprints from others who had done the same. I am not one to give up, so I kept plugging along. The plants and bushes in this area are very patchy so it is really difficult to tell what may or may not be the right path.
Eventually, I realized I was not following any clearly marked trail. There had still been several sets of footprints around me recently so I assumed I was OK, but the footprints quickly faded as people turned back. If this had been a small side trail it would be one thing, but this is one of the main trails on the preserve and it has become so overgrown that, from what I could see, many people became confused and eventually got lost trying to follow its arduous path.
I found my way back to a clearly marked portion of the trail and headed back to the staging area. I did not get as far along as I had planned due to the poorly maintained Canyon View Trail. While many parts of this open space preserve are worth seeing, I would strongly caution any hiker planning to go more than 2 miles out that the trail conditions are extremely poor at this time. It’s a shame because this area has a lot to offer, but for now I absolutely cannot recommend it.
Skip this one and check out Elfin Forest Reserve to the west instead.

It was a nice day hike with a few different options to make your time on the trails shorter or longer.
Only disappointment was the amount of dog poop and horse poop on the trails.

Nice peaceful hike
Pros
Well marked trails
Secluded (only saw 4 other people while i was there)
A small river crossing (maybe more after a rain?)
Variety of flowers plants and trees (a few signs telling you what some of the plants were)
Graveled parking area
Porta potty bathrooms
You can choose different trails to make it a longer or shorter hike (6 or 8 mile loop or longer if you want)
Cons:
— although the trails are well marked, it is somewhat over grown (since its not highly trafficted) so bring long pants if you don’t want you shins to rub against the brush.
— people bring their horses there so theres a bunch of horse poop.
— with a name like hellhole, you can imagine that it gets hot in the afternoon.
Notes:
Go early (or in cooler months) to avoid excessive heat.
Moderate difficulty (Hiking shoes required for loose terrain and some up and down hill parts)
Long pants prefered to avoid the brush, but shorts preferred for coolness. (decisions… decisions…)
Bring a Hat and water (not much tree coverage)
Take a trail map at the beginning of the trail.