Black Mountain Hike San Diego

The Black Mountain Open Space Park is a large park with plenty of hiking opportunities. The mountain gets its name from the Black Sage, which make it look darker than the surrounding area, you can see this on Google Maps.

I parked at the Hilltop Community Park and went up the most popular Nighthawk Trail to the top of Black Mountain (which at 1,554 feet includes a bunch of antennae), the hike is around 4 miles round trip. I found Black Mountain not as good as most of the Mission Trails Peaks or Iron Mountain. The path was mostly dirt and large pointy rocks, mountain biking is fairly popular. On the plus side the facilities are generally better.

Fun fact, there is an old abandoned arsenic mine in the area. Also included below is the Black Mountain Trail Map I found.