Santiago Peak

Do not do this hike if you have bad knees, hips, or ankles! This is a very challenging hike. When i went i met people who had been training for a hike like this. It isn’t something you can just decide to do (thats what I did) however if you do be very prepared, bring a lot of water. I gave 4 stars because this is a great challenging hike however it was hard to find and get to. You walk almost a mile before you even get to the actual trail and to get to a close enough parking lot you should have a car that sits high up or has 4 wheel drive.

It is a hard trail to hike. We started hiking at 8 and reach the top around 2. We had a lunch break on the top. We reached the 1 mile sign of Holy Jim Trail when the sunset just over. And backed to our truck at 6:40 pm.
Wear the right shoes, bring plenty of water, and track your time.

For a local peak trail that only tops off at 5,689 feet at Santiago Peak, this was not an easy hike at all! This Holy Jim Trail covers 15.6 miles round trip with 4,000 feet of elevation gain. If it wasn’t for the long 4.6 miles of ROUGH dirt road just to get to the trail head, this would be a good local hike for Orange County’s highest peak. But for me, there are better trails near by to summit a peak, without the wear and tear on your vehicle. It took me 30 minutes to drive that 4.6 miles. I would rather hike Mt Baldy, San Jacinto, San Gorgonio or the forgotten San Bernardino Peaks.
From the Santa Ana Freeway, exit El Toro Road and head east. When you reach Cook’s Corner, turn right on Live Oak Canyon Road and drive 4.3 miles. As soon as you pass O’Neil Park look for Rose Street. At Rose Street there is a wash. Immediately after the wash, turn left onto the dirt Trabuco Creek Road. Stay straight on this rough dirt road for 4.6 miles to the parking lot. A parking Adventure Pass is required here.
Cars can travel this road, but having a high clearance vehicle is better. Some of the holes are deep.
From the parking lot, walk up the dirt road to the left behind the trailhead sign. You quickly pass by some cabins and in 0.5 miles you will reach the actual trailhead. This trail is very well maintained and easy to follow. On the upper section, you will need to know where to turn for the smaller trail junctions. There are a few nice water creeks to cross, but there are boulders and tree logs in place. Once you pass the junction to the falls, the trail gets steeper as it switchbacks up the mountain. After about 2 miles the trail is a hedge grove tunnel. In this section, your view is hidden. I like the upper two thirds of the trail, where the views are nice and you start to feel like you are on a mountain. The last 1.5 miles you follow a rocky dirt service road to the summit, which I wasn’t too fond of. But the summit was very interesting with all those antennas. On the way down, I stopped off at the falls, which adds only 0.4 miles round trip. I like using landmarks to break up a long hike into smaller sections:
* Trailhead — 1,740′ elevation
* 0.5 miles — Actual trailhead
* 1.4 miles — Holy Jim Falls junction sign. (2,285′)
Go Left to towards Santiago Peak, or
Go Right 0.2 miles to the falls.
* 3.5 miles — 3 mile marker
* 4.5 miles — 4 mile marker (3,835′)
* 4.85 miles — Climb up to the lower Main Divide Rd
Go Right
* 4.88 miles — Bear Springs concrete vault.
Continue on the road to the right.
* 5.25 miles — Take a sharp Left turn up the narrow
steep path almost hidden by bushes.
There will be 2^nd ‘Upper Holy Jim’
white sign here. (4,050′)
* 6.14 miles — Reach the upper Main Divide Road
U-​turn. Go Right & wrap around to
the Left & head towards the antennas.
* 7.6 miles — Santiago Peak where the antennas are.
5,689’
Don’t get me wrong, I liked this trail, but with all the considerations it wasn’t my favorite mountain hike. However, this trail is perfect for a FAST descent.

Great mountain to hike. I’ve done it a few times, and normally drink my 3L camel pack water plus a couple more small bottles of water. Make sure you load up on carbs before and while your hiking, I’m talking about dried fruit, granola bars etc. I always get an early start when hiking a trail this long. There are mountain lions and coyotes in the Cleveland national forest, so walking back in the dark isn’t the best idea.
So, start in the morning, bring lots of water, snacks that give you energy, sunscreen, a hat and sunglasses, tick/​mosquito spray and for emergency purposes, bring a lighter (use your head, don’t be a dumbass) and atleast a knife.

To get to Santiago Peak, you’ll likely hike via the Holy Jim Trail, turn left onto the Main Divide Road, and then walk your way up. Along the Main Divide Road, you’ll be sharing the path with douchebag fat dudes in lifted trucks who will kick up dust as they blast past you without any regard for your safety. And along the entire hike, you’ll be sharing the path with bugs. Lots and lots of flies, gnats, biting flies, more flies, some flies, baby flies, old flies, flies, and flies.
So apparently Holy Jim used to be called «Cussin’ Jim». I can see why. I was furious by the end of the hike. These flies were vicious, and no amount of bug repellent would keep them away. We ended up with countless bites everywhere and really foul moods.
Given the rather weak views (nothing compared to most hikes up in Angeles National Forest), it’s really not worth it. Still, if you MUST go, take a ton of bug repellent. In fact, just take Raid.

Don’t underestimate how long it takes to hike to the peak. We didn’t make it because of that lol. We started the hike at 1pm, and ended at 6:30pm, so about 3 hours of nonstop hiking until we hit our turnaround point at 5pm. It would have gotten dark if we kept going, but yeah, have a good amount of time.
I WENT UP TO JIM CROW IN A 2WHEEL DRIVE CAMRY. Don’t do this, trust the people who say you need a high clearance car or you can hear the terrain and bumps hit the bottom of your car. We went super slow to get up… Slower than walking speed, while other cars floored through it like nothing. Don’t bend or break and axle.
The entire hike we did was ~16 miles round trip. Completely worth it and pretty hard so being fit definitely helps.

Anyone who hikes in Orange County knows of or has heard of Santiago Peak. It is the hikes of all hikes in OC. 16 miles! The prize for OC hikers.
Since the Santa Ana Winds had ruined my first attempt. I had to reschedule my hike to reach the 5,689 ft peak.
The parking lot and trail head for this hike is the same as the one to Holy Jim Waterfall. A forest adventure pass is required (FYI, you can get one at The Path Bike shop or at REI). After parking and checking our gear we headed left onto the post trail that leads to the Holy Jim Trail.
From the parking lot you will head about a mile and a half into the canyon until you reach the junction. If you go straight you will hit the small waterfall, if you make a left here and proceed onto the Holy Jim Trail towards the Main Divide Rd. Making a right will take you to the waterfall.
Once on the trail you gradually begin to ascend the mountain for the next 4 miles until reaching the Main Divide Rd. The trail itself is a single track trail that is well shaded and in pretty good condition. On the main road the tough part begins so be prepare and bring plenty of water and comfortable shoes as the descend is pretty steep and my shoes were a little tight that I had my toes bleeding and my nails turned purple. At the top you will find the antennas and you can walk around the top to see all the way to Catalina and surrounding hills and on the other side you can see the 91 all the way down to Corona. One way from the parking is 8.91 miles. Wearing a knee brace is highly recommended when coming down to help with the stress on the knees.

Entering from Silverado Canyon Rd to Maple Springs Truck Trail, connecting to Main Divide Rd, all the way up to Santiago Peak and all the way down Main Divide Rd to the Ortega Hwy (route 74) is 25 – 30 miles or so. Or you can take the Indian Truck Trail Rd down and end up at the 15. Make sure to check their website to see if the «Maple Springs Road» gate is open before you go:
Awesome trails for dual-​sports and high clearance vehicles with some breathtaking views. 4×4 isn’t necessarily needed, but you should definitely have some decent all-​terrain tires, especially since it can get icy up there. I’ve never had issues in my 2wd 4runner, but I have some aggressive tires and a low gear.
I suggest being confident in your maneuvering skills because it gets very tight in spots, leaving very little room for error. When there’s not enough room to pass a vehicle coming in the oppose direction, either you or the other vehicle has to reverse until there’s enough room to pass, basically leaving your tires only inches from the edge. Be careful of the dual-​sports flying around corners.

I wanna free fall out into nothin’
Gonna leave this world for awhile
And I’m free, I’m free fallin’ — Tom Petty, «Free Falling»
I live in two worlds right now, Silicon Valley and Orange County. One of the many differences between the two is how easily accessible outstanding hiking is in the Bay Area. Orange County just cannot compare. With one exception: The hike up to Santiago Peak. From Wikipedia: Santiago Peak is the southern mountain of Orange County’s Saddleback formation. It is the highest and most prominent peak of both the Santa Ana Mountains and Orange County, and also marks a border point with Riverside County
There are a couple of different ways you can do this hike. One is starting at Modjeska Canyon and hiking up the Harding Trail. The other is via the Holy Jim/​Main Divide Road which is the way Glenn G. and I did it.
There are several different places to park. We chose closest parking lot next to tiny woodsy community that is adjacent to the Holy Jim Trail. For some reason, the Holy Jim Trail head seems a lot closer when you start out then when you return to the car :) To get to this parking lot is a 4.5 slow drive over rugged Trabuco Creek Rd (enter at Trabuco Canyon Rd just south of bridge over the creek) that my dusty Subaru had a good time with. Like the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland! You need $ 5 Adventure Pass at this point. You can park closer to Trabuco Canyon but that does add the road mileage to your hike so plan accordingly.
There are essentially 3 legs to the hike we did. The first 5.5 miles is on the Holy Jim Trail. You can stop and look at the Falls but given the compressed light schedule during the winter, we bypassed this part as we did not hit the trail till 8:50 or so. During the winter, an 8:00AM start is probably best option if you want to add the Falls and have lunch on the Peak. The first few miles are relatively easy grade up as you walk in a nice Oak shaded area and pass the Falls. At around the 2 mile mark you leave most of the Canyon growth behind and leave the shade. On our day it was quite lovely and then the views start appearing. Wow! Almost like a mini-​Big Sur. It is rocky at points but the view is so worth it!
At the 5 mile mike you have a choice for the second leg. Go up to peak on Main Divide Road (which is accessible via 4×4 vehicles) or go up the Upper Holy Jim Trail. All my hiking reviews said go up the Holy Jim for better views. So Glenn and I searched and searched for the trail. The sign for the trail is useless as it points to the side of the mountain. But Glenn being intrepid found the trail through some brush and up we went! This is easily the hardest incline of this hike and with a too full backpack (did I really need to bring the spare tire jack?) I admit I struggled at some points on this leg. But the views were as advertised!!! While there is little shade, you get absolutely stunning vistas out towards the ocean and to Lake Elsinore/​Corona.
Going the Upper Holy Jim trail way creates the third leg as it meets up with the Main Divide Road. At this point you’ve gone about 7 miles and you still have 1.5 miles of a slog up to the Peak. At this time of the year sometimes there is a lot of snow but on this January hike we just saw remnant patches. The views at this stretch are primarily of the Inland Empire and the mountain peaks to the East. After all this uphill, the Peak might be a letdown as it is full of cell towers and antennas. There are no 360 vistas but walk the complex as you will get stunning views of Orange County and the 909 area code.
The downhill portion is not as easy as you might think as it is very rocky and slippery in areas. We thought we could jet downhill but it didn’t quite work out that way. You are tired regardless and with the terrain, cannot pick up the speed you’d like. Both Glenn and I took headers at points in the downhill, me near the peak and Glenn as we were closer to the parking lot (hence the Tom Petty lyric to start). My fall was a bit more precarious as my backpack (Did I really need to pack an anvil?) shifted over my head and Glenn had to stabilize it before I could get up lest I take the short route to the Canyon floor.
The guides will tell you this is a 16 mile hike but it really is 17 miles when you add in the walk through the cabin neighborhood to get to the trailhead. Like a Stephen King or Sidney Stone horror novel though, the walk from the trailhead back to the car was agonizingly longer then the walk to the trailhead in the morning. It is like the neighborhood expanded during the day ;) In the end though, it was a fantastic hike that all Orange County residents should do at least once! Pack smarter than I did though. I packed too much water, too much food, unneeded binoculars that were used for 5 seconds. The pack was an albatross during the second leg steepness and a damn heavy albatross during the downhill home. My shoulders hate me right now