Caliente Mountain
San Luis Obispo County
Height: 5,106 ft
Date Hiked: April 6th, 2008The opportunity to take off for a weekend doesn’t come along very often for us so we took the chance to get our third high point under our belts. This was by far my favorite to date, partially because we live in San Luis Obispo County so it means a little more to us. Caliente Mountain is located in the Carrizo Plain National Monument. We arrived on Friday night camped in Selby Campground and in the morning headed up the 3-mile dirt road to the start of the trail. After reading other accounts of the hike we decided to take our bikes for the 16-mile round trip trek. The bikes were a little of a hassle for me not being a bike rider but on the way back was definitely worth the effort. We choose the perfect time of year to hike Caliente Mountain, the wildflowers we in full bloom and the sights were full of color. At the top of Caliente is a WWII lookout that appears to be about to fall over if a strong wind comes along. Along the hike we saw a baby rattlesnake, horned lizard and a couple fossil shells embedded in rocks. Other than waking up the next morning a little sore, we had a great tour of the Caliente Mountain range.
