This is a 15 mile hike bordering the Cleveland National Forest, in Caspars Wilderness Park along Ortega Highway, which is a loop hike, with a point of interest, the site of the historic San Juan Hot Springs.
I parked at the East Ridge parking area in in Caspars Wilderness Park, by Live Oak Campground. My hike began around 7 am when the park opens. It is the month of April, and a relatively dry year, not during a superbloom. Typically springtime is a beautiful time to hike in this area.
I started the hike along the road, as this is the way alltrails directed me to go, but an alternate would have been to take the East Ridge.
I passed Old Corral parking area, which has farm equipment and a horse arena, heading up Bell Canyon. The trail gradually climbs along Bell Canyon, and has plenty of shade.
I would take this trail to Cougar Pass. After veering onto Cougar Pass, it become an open grassland and exposed to sun.
It also began to climb more steadily, until Oso Trail, where the it gets steep.
Hiking up Oso Trail, there is little shade, except a few trees.
I noticed what was either a condor or a turkey vulture early in to the hike in one of the trees, and saw this same bird again, sitting atop the shade structure at the top of the first big climb.
After this structure the views kept getting better, and the trail showed little evidence of foot traffic.
It remains wide and clear most of the way. I could see Sugarloaf Peak and Saddleback Mountain in the distance.
The trail would dip down toward San Juan Hot Springs. This is where it became very faint, and soon overgrown with grass. I started to regret taking this route at this point, but continued, carefully watching for snakes.
I continued to the hot spring to check it out. At the hot spring, there were lots of bees, and signs warning not to go in, so I did not.
At the end of the trail was a locked gate, and a picnic area, which looked like it had not had visitors in a long time. I had only see one hiker most of the day, and just before the hot spring, a hiking group. This place seemed seldom visited.
I headed back along what I thought was the right trail. It branches off and I went left, ending up at an old apiary. I backtracked, and continued on the alternate route, which was overgrown, and narrow.
I hiked this narrow stretch back along Ortega Highway, seeing some widlflowers here.
Eventually I was hiking through the creek bed, which was dry. This part was not too exciting, and again I was watching out for snakes.
I had hiked 15 miles and felt great to complete one of my longest hikes to date, finishing the hike at 2 pm.
Fast forward to 2026…
This hike would be the start of big things, and I did not even know it yet. Later this year I would summit my first 9000 foot peak, Mount Baden Powell and thru hike the Catalina Trail (TCT). I also started this blog that year.
Back in 2021, when I was just starting to push my limits more with hiking, I started taking long solo hikes. I didn’t quite know what I was doing. One of my early hikes was this San Juan Loop. I loved to film my hikes then, but I was not very good, nor did I have a great camera, just an older iphone. But here is my footage, now just put together of the hike, as I am going back through a lot of the old stuff. It shows is how it was then, and not much has changed.
Hope you enjoyed this, and it will help you know what to expect if you decide to visit here!
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Serafina Hikes 