Big Laguna Trail
Laguna Mountains (Cleveland NF), Sunrise Hwy · near Mount Laguna · San Diego
Hiking
At a glance
- Difficulty
- moderate
- Route type
- loop
- Distance
- 9.5 miles
- Elevation gain
- 900 ft
- Time needed
- day
- Best season
- Spring (meadow ponds full, wildflowers) and fall · Comfortably cool at ~5,500 ft in summer
Permits and booking
- Permit required
- No
- How the permit works
- A Cleveland NF Adventure Pass is required to park. Multiple trailheads work off Sunrise Highway (Penny Pines, Meadows, Sunrise).
- How hard the permit is to get
- 1 of 5
What is here
- Features
- Rolling meadows · Seasonal Big Laguna Lake · Jeffrey pines & PCT stretch · Desert-rim views
Worth knowing
- Dogs
- Allowed
- Good for a first timer
- No
Hiking detail
- Intl tip
- Some meadow sections are faint and braided; download a GPS track, because the trail can vanish in the grass. In dry years the 'lake' may be a dusty flat — spring is the payoff season.
The guide
The gentlest, most un-Southern-California hike in the county — a rolling loop across golden meadows and seasonal lakes ringed b…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Big Laguna Trail — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 32.883, -116.45