Kitchen Creek

October 20, 2017 tarannosaurus

Epic Travel → North America → The West Coast → Southern California → San Diego Area → Kitchen Creek

⊗ Technical Option Available ⊗

Warning: Do Not Attempt Technical Option Without Proper Training – click here for details

Location: Cleveland National Forest, east of San Diego

Distance: 4.0 miles total, roundtrip from the bottom (returning via Kitchen Creek the whole way)

Elevation Ascent/Descent: 900 feet/900 feet

Time Required: ~3 hours

Rappels: Maximum of 4, lengths up to 60 feet. All raps can be avoided via side trails, and during dry conditions, the creek can be descended directly via down-climbing. For more information on the technical route, visit the ropewiki page. Various websites cover the non-technical, hiking option, including Nobody Hikes in LA (bottom up and return route) and this post from Hiking San Diego County (top down and return route), although there don’t appear to be any actual pictures of the main section of Kitchen Creek Falls on the Hiking San Diego County post so…not sure what’s up with that.

Red Tape/Notes: Falls are seasonal and are best viewed at the end of winter/early spring (or after a heavy rain). No permit or shuttle required, although a quicker option using a shuttle is available. This option reduces the approach distance by a mile and changes your ascent/descent to 0 feet/1300 feet.

What’s Nearby?: Descanso, Old Highway 80, Goat Canyon Trestle, Indian Creek-Pacific Coast Trail Loop, Garnet Peak, Oasis Spring

We don’t really have any technical canyons to speak of in the San Diego area, so we sometimes get a little bit desperate. Kitchen Creek is an option for those times. If the falls are dry, the whole thing can be down climbed fairly easily, and even if there’s water, you can avoid the raps by a use trail next to the falls, so this is a rather contrived technical route. Still, it’s a good training area for first time canyoneers, and it’s a good excuse to get wet if it’s hot out. Although, with this being a seasonal waterfall, there’s a narrow window of time in which it’s both hot and there’s water. Anyway, it’s something. If you get lucky, like we did, you’ll be caught in a random thunderstorm and get to experience how quickly water starts flowing when it rains. Continuing down the creek adds some enjoyable down climbing and off trail hiking and is a pleasant way to spice up the route with slightly more adventure. And if you’re looking for something more basic, this is a pleasant enough hike – just hike in from either the top or the bottom to visit the falls and perhaps play in the creek some, and then return via the trails like a normal person.