Climbing Mt. Solmar with The Dogs, Los Cabos, Mexico


We heard about this climb from Darren's niece who had done the exact climb last week.  Whenever you do a search on hikes in the Los Cabos area, this Mount Solmar hike does not come up.  I would highly recommend it though because it was a great deal of fun and it was challenging.  I went with 3 friends and to top it all off there was a bunch of dogs walking with us up the mountain.  

Enrique runs a Dog Training Center.  He started this hike with dogs to train them most likely. And now people join him for free and climb up Mount Solmar with the dogs. The dogs love it and they are barking and in a bit of a frenzy before you go. 
You take an Uber or drive your car to the dog training center and you wait in line at 8:00 a.m. this hike accompanied by dogs is available every morning except Saturday.  
Kent, Joelle, Craig and I in the line-up to get into see the dogs and start the climb.

Enrique led us into the compound and gave us a talk on the area and what not to touch etc.  Personally, I would have rather heard a story about how the dogs got involved in this and how he started inviting people and how this walk has actually evolved into what it is today.  
In the compound of the Dog Training Center.

The walk starts out very easy with a gradual incline that anybody can do.  
That's Craig with his Starbucks



About halfway up that's when you start to scramble a bit and then 3/4 of the way up is when you're scrambling a lot and you need a four-point contact with hands and feet on the rocks.  We passed one lady who said she had had a hip replacement 3 years ago and it was still causing her a lot of pain and I'm not sure how she was going to get up and down because once you go up 3/4 of the way it's really hard to go back down that way, it's a bit more treacherous. 



Eventually as you climb, you are surrounded with gorgeous views of the Marina, Pacific Ocean meeting the Sea of Cortez and Medano Beach.  There was a Holland America cruise ship in Port to gaze at as well. 

In the distance you can see the point and that was where our resort Vista Encantada was.












There are all sorts of flora and fauna everywhere and sometimes when you're struggling a bit you reach out to grab what you think is a tree, but it's actually a cactus so you do have to be aware at all times.

Lots of cacti everywhere.



The dogs are very energetic, we had five with us and they were at the head of the pack leading the way.  They know what they were doing and they were with Enrique who was the guide.  










We did not get to enjoy the dogs for the hike up until we got to the top and then they walked around and met everybody and some of them are still in a bit of a frenzy and they're very excited to be there.  























The views were stunning. At the top you can see Divorce Beach and probably if you climbed out to the super scary area you may have been able to see Lover's Beach but I'm not sure.  I got a great view of Grand Solmar Lands End which is a timeshare that we had stayed at a few years back and the beach looked beautiful.  
Lands End is the farthest Southern point on the Baja Peninsula and it is a collection of huge rock formations which includes El Arco or the arch.  From our perspective up on Mount Solmar we could not view the arch, although that would have been spectacular as well.  

A few daring souls who are not afraid of heights or death are seated at the top of that scary rock.

From this vantage point you can view at this time of year (December - April) the ever-present whales breaching and spouting.














The group hangs out at the top for approximately 25 minutes and then Enrique signals to the dogs and the people to head back down.  You descend on a different path that is still quite challenging and you're scrambling quite a bit to get down the hill.
I highly recommend this hike for the challenge, the fun and the views!!























We continued with our day and walked to the Marina which is just around the corner from the bottom of Mt. Solmar.  There was a Sea Lion to greet us in the water right when we entered the Marina area.  He was a real poser!
He was just sitting there like a big fat dude sunning himself.

There were many Mexican peddlers trying to sell us everything under the sun.  One guy put a baby Iguana in Joelle's hand and it was so funny.
We all wanted a Margarita and we stopped at Captain Tony's Restaurant.  The Margaritas were delicious and we all ate breakfast.  I had Huevos Rancheros and it was super good after you put all of the dressings on it which was the hot sauce, the guac sauce and the pico de Gallo.








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