Volcan Mountain Trail Guide

5.6 miles - Moderate Effort
3-4 Hours (Total)
1,300 Total Feet of Climbing
Max Elevation of 5,353 feet
Leashed Dogs Allowed

This hike visits the namesake of the Volcan Mountain Wilderness Preserve, and it's a journey filled with natural beauty, history, and breathtaking views. To get to Volcan Mountain, we will take the popular Volcan Mountain Trail and then hop on the Five Oaks Trail, where the beauty is on another level. When we get to the summit, we'll enjoy views from the Salton Sea to Catalina.

In this Guide:

Video and Turn-by-Turn Directions for the Volcan Mountain Trail
Where to Park for the Volcan Mountain Trail
Insider Tips & Recommendations for the Hike

Quick Links: Volcan Mountain Wilderness Preserve - NOAA Weather Report - Top Gear Picks (Sep 2023)

When planning, always check the park website and social media to make sure the trails are open. Similarly, check the weather and road conditions.

Where is the Volcan Mountain Trail?

There's no parking lot for the Volcan Mountain Trail. Instead, you are allowed to park on the wide shoulder along the road by this address:
1209 Farmer Road, Julian, CA 92036

Volcan Mountain Trail Directions 3 — There's a wide shoulder to park along. Don't block any driveways. Parking is free.

Volcan Mountain Trail Directions 1 — Here are the opening hours. Check the website before you go; occasionally the park will close.

Volcan Mountain Trail Directions 4 — Stay on the trails, don't take anything, and be respectful.

Gear For the Hike

Although you can get away with fitness clothing, I recommend proper hiking gear for the hike. Bring at least 1L of water, and trekking poles can help on the steeper slopes of the Volcan Mountain Trail. The weather can be extreme. In the summer it can get very hot (and the trail is mainly exposed). In the winter, there can be snow.

When the winter winds howl on Volcan, there's nothing between it and the North Pole except for a barbed wire fence, and that blew down. Old Julian Local's Saying

My Latest Gear Picks

Garmin inReach Mini 2 ( Amazon | REI )
HOKA Speedgoat 5 ( Men | Women )
Zpacks Sub-Nero Ultra ( Zpacks | Review )
Alpine Carbon Cork Poles ( REI | Amazon )

As a hiking guide, I test lots of hiking gear. On my picks page, I'll show you all of the gear that I actually use. I don't accept paid promotions or talk about the stuff that doesn't make the cut. It's just the gear that works best, so you don't have to waste your money.

All My September 2023 Top Gear Picks

Volcan Mountain Trail Maps

Explore Map on CalTopo View a Printable PDF Hike Map Download the Hike GPX File

Best Smartphone Apps to Navigate: AllTrails | GaiaGPS | OnX

Elevation Profile

Volcan Mountain Trail Guide Elevation — Here's the one-way elevation profile. It's a mixed bag of uphill. Some sections are steep but short. Other flat sections give you a reprieve to catch your breath. And while certainly uphill, it's not the effort that you'd put in for bigger peaks.

3D Map

Hike Brief

Volcan Mountain Trail Directions 2 — Volcan Mountain comes alive with wildflowers in the spring. Keep your eyes open for the California poppy, which is an Instagram favorite.

Is Volcan Mountain a volcano? Nope, it's good old granite. There's some dispute about how it got its name. Some say the Spanish thought it looked like a volcano. Others say they named it after the Spanish word for balcony, baulcon, because of the views. And there's another theory is that a rancher named Vaulcan lived there. And to round it out, others say it's derived from an early Mexican land grant called Rancho de Santa Ysabel Baulcon. Had enough? The native Diegueno called it "Hahachephag" meaning "where the water comes from." The mountain is the headway for the San Dieguito and the San Diego river basins.
The land here was privately owned for many years. It was going to be sold into luxury home lots in the 1980s, but the locals saved the area, and it eventually became the Volcan Mountain Wilderness Preserve. Today the Volcan Mountain Foundation works hard to protect, manage, and educate.
When former slave A.E. "Fred" Coleman discovered gold on the southern slope of Volcan Mountain in 1869, the Julian gold rush began. Today Julian is a great place to grab apple pie or cider after the hike.
Here's what Volcan Mountain looked like in 1875 during the gold rush. The upper slopes of Volcan Mountain were mainly used for ranching and logging. This is Bleak Ranch, probably raising cattle for the town below. Photo SoCa Digitization Project

Volcan Mountain Hike Directions

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Volcan Mountain Trail Directions 5 — Start hiking up the road from the parking area. There are private residences along this starting stretch of the hike.

Volcan Mountain Trail Directions 6 — Go through the gate at the end of the road.

Volcan Mountain Trail Directions 7 — And then pass the Volcan Mountain Wilderness Preserve sign.

Volcan Mountain Trail Directions 8 — And then continue through the James Hubbell Gateway sculpture.

The Elsinore Fault is directly underneath you here.

Volcan Mountain Trail Directions 10 — Take time to appreciate the sculpture, created by Julian artist James Hubbell. The wood is cedar felled and milled at nearby Palomar Mountain. James' son Brennan created the metalwork, and Mirko Mrakajic did the carvings you see here. The frog was originally a rendition called "Universal Man." After hearing that it looked "too demonic," Mrakajic changed it into a frog.

Volcan Mountain Trail Directions 9 — To the right of the sculpture are toilets, the only ones on the hike.

Volcan Mountain Trail Directions 11 — Just past the sculpture is a trail board and map.

Volcan Mountain Trail Directions 12 — Start hiking up the Volcan Mountain Trail, which is an old road.

Volcan Mountain Trail Directions 13 — When the trail winds around to the south, you can see Cuyamaca Peak in the distance.

Volcan Mountain Trail Directions 14 — At about 0.6 miles in, make the right onto the Five Oaks Trail.

Volcan Mountain Trail Directions 15 — We're going to take the scenic Five Oaks Trail up toward the summit. This trail parallels the Volcan Mountain Trail and is much more scenic.

The Five Oaks Trail was built in 2003 by the California Conservation Corps, and is named after the five species of oaks found along the trail. Since the trail was built, they've found an additional three species of oaks growing here, bringing the total to eight. This area is at just the right elevation to allow lower and higher elevation oaks to live together.

Volcan Mountain Trail Directions 16 — The Five Oaks Trail is a scenic singletrack with some shaded sections.

Volcan Mountain Trail Directions 17 — The views into Julian and beyond to Cuyamaca Peak are nonstop.

Volcan Mountain Trail Directions 18 — The Five Oaks winds and climbs around the southern slope.

Volcan Mountain Trail Directions 19 — The trail is well-built with some sections of switchbacks and stone steps.

Volcan Mountain Trail Directions 20 — And there's a bench about halfway through.

Volcan Mountain Trail Directions 21 — The view from the bench makes it worth stopping at.

Volcan Mountain Trail Directions 22 — As you get toward the top of the Five Oaks Trail, the gradient eases.

Volcan Mountain Trail Directions 23 — And at the top you are rewarded with a stone bench looking into Banner Canyon.

Volcan Mountain Trail Directions 24 — You can also see to Monument Peak in the distance.

Volcan Mountain Trail Directions 25 — Continue to the end of the Five Oaks Trail and rejoin the Volcan Mountain Trail.

Volcan Mountain Trail Directions 26 — Just 1.2 miles to the summit from the junction.

Volcan Mountain Trail Directions 27 — Continue hiking through the WIndows screensaver landscape. It's easy to see how this was once ranch land.

Volcan Mountain Trail Directions 28 — There's a stretch of the trail here where you hike through a shaded oak grove.

Volcan Mountain Trail Directions 29 — When you get up to the ridgeline and the junction with Volcan Road, stay right on the main trail.

Volcan Mountain Trail Directions 30 — Look for a chimney on your right, just past the last junction.

Volcan Mountain Trail Directions 31 — This is all that remains of the Volcan Mountain Astronomy Outpost. It was built in 1928 as an evaluation location for the Hale Telescope, which eventually ended up at Palomar Mountain.

Volcan Mountain Trail Directions 32 — Keep climbing and keep your eyes open for the viewfinder on the right.

Volcan Mountain Trail Directions 33 — Use the viewfinder and display to identify the peaks to the west.

Volcan Mountain Trail Directions 34 — Continue uphill and look for a turnoff to the left with another viewpoint.

Volcan Mountain Trail Directions 35 — From this viewpoint you get incredible views into Anza Borrego, including the large mountain directly south, Granite Mountain, and beyond that, Whale Peak.

The downdrafts coming off Volcan Mountain into the desert are notorious here. Several small planes have crashed into the side of the mountain when they didn't account for these strong winds.

Volcan Mountain Trail Directions 36 — Continue uphill and make the right at the split. When you return, you can come back on the other side of this loop.

Volcan Mountain Trail Directions 37 — Look to your left for a small summit rest area with a trail board and bench.

The tower you see here is an Airway Light Beacon, used before modern aviation navigation systems to help guide pilots along airways. By 1972 the entire network was decommissioned.

Volcan Mountain Trail Directions 38 — The summit area is worth a look around.

Volcan Mountain Trail Directions 39 — To see the actual summit, climb the concrete by the bench. Yes, that's an orb.

Volcan Mountain Trail Directions 40 — And the benchmark is to the right once in the trees, not on the highest rock ahead.

Volcan Mountain Trail Directions 41 — The benchmark is from 1939.

Volcan Mountain Trail Directions 42 — One more thing to see at the summit. From the picnic bench, head back to the loop, then cross over onto the singletrack trail.

Volcan Mountain Trail Directions 43 — Follow the trail a short way.

Volcan Mountain Trail Directions 44 — And then enjoy the views from the Charles Powell Memorial Bench.

Volcan Mountain Trail Directions 45 — That's it, that's the hike! From the summit, continue around the loop and head back downhill. You can skip the Five Oaks Trail and go straight if you'd like to cut a few minutes off the hike.

Have a question about the guide or want to see what other people are saying/asking? View the Youtube comments for this video. Leave a comment and I will do my best to respond.

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This Guide Was Written by Cris Hazzard

Cris Hazzard 4 Mile Trail Yosemite
Hi, I'm Cris Hazzard, aka Hiking Guy, a professional outdoors guide, hiking expert, and author based in Southern California. I created this website to share all the great hikes I do with everyone else out there. This site is different because it gives detailed directions that even the beginning hiker can follow. I also share what hiking gear works and doesn't so you don't waste money. I don't do sponsored or promoted content; I share only the gear recommendations, hikes, and tips that I would with my family and friends. If you like the website and YouTube channel, please support these free guides (I couldn't do it without folks like you!).

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