About an hour and fifteen minutes from coastal San Diego, the Boulder Park Mystery Caves and Desert View Tower make for a quirky and fun half-day trip for families who likes to explore and climb. This also makes a great roadside stop to stretch your legs if you are driving to or from Arizona, something we find ourselves doing fairly regularly. The carvings and tower are registered as an official California Historical Landmark (#939).
Desert View Tower
When you arrive, you’ll head into the Desert View Tower and be greeted by the very outgoing and welcoming owner. He has a great sense of humor and makes you feel right at home. He even gave us some coins to use the tower viewer at the top.
You can easily climb to the top of the tower and on a clear day you can see views of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.
You can also see views of the Boulder Park Mystery Caves. See the alligator? That is the area where you get to climb around!
Boulder Park Mystery Caves
As we headed over to the Boulder Park Mystery Caves the kids had a blast petting several dogs wandering around the property, as well as a couple of peacocks! Immediately upon walking in we saw the carved creatures that were the brainchild of an engineer. You know how you can see formations in the clouds? Well, I guess this guy saw formations in the boulders and turned them into reality!
Throughout the area are fun and relatively safe boulders to scramble across and of course various fun caves that take you through to the other side. The kids really enjoyed the boulder maze, seeing where the caves took them as well as the endless paths of boulders they climbed around on.
Once the carved creatures were behind us, it became all about scrambling along the boulders to see how high and far they could get!
It was hard to keep up with this little climber. Good thing there really weren’t any big ledges or areas to fall. As far as bouldering goes, it felt very doable and safe for the kids.
Oh, and don’t miss their little trail up to see their hot springs! We were completely expecting to see some at the top of the trail. Hahahaha, very clever. Love the sense of humor this place has.
Know Before You Go:
Location: The Boulder Park Mystery Caves and Desert View Tower is about 1 hour and 15 minutes from coastal San Diego. It’s literally straight east the 8 freeway and right off an exit in Jacumba. Super easy. Consider calling ahead because sometimes they close for private events and festivals.
What to wear/bring: You can wear sneakers but we wished we had brought hiking shoes to gives us a little more leverage on the boulders. Pack a lunch as there are no food options. Several picnic tables were available to eat our lunch.
Cost: As of this blog post, the cost is $6.50/adults and $3.50/children.
When to go: Jacumba can get very hot. We recommend avoiding the summer months and waiting until it gets cooler.
Let us know if you visit the Boulder Park Mystery Caves and Desert View Tower, and what you thought!
