January 19, 2024

By Tim Briese

1.0 miles, 450’ elevation gain, 1:40 roundtrip time

My wife Teresa and I went on a wintertime getaway to sunny Cabo San Lucas. We had a wonderful time, with our days filled with relaxation, whale watching, photography, oceanside dining, and beautiful sunrises and sunsets.

on the patio of our room at the solmar resort

a cabo sunrise

a whale breaching on our whale watching excursion

a cabo sunset

One morning I went on a hike up Mt. Solmar, which towered over our resort, at the very southern tip of the Baja Peninsula.

a view of mt. solmar from our room

The climb was not advertised anywhere, I simply learned about it online. The starting point for the hike was about a ten minute walk from our resort. The mountain is on private property and the owner, Enrique, has a dog kennel at the base of the peak. He guides hikers up the peak six days a week starting at 8 am in the morning. There are no fees, no reservations, nor any paperwork or liability waiver of any kind. He simply asks for tips at the end. People line up outside the fence of his kennel in the morning and he takes anybody who shows up.

hikers waiting for the hike to start.  mt. solmar is in the center.

There were about 85 hikers the morning I went. Enrique let people in through a gate, then his half dozen or so dogs were let out of a pen to mingle through the crowd. The man is quite a character. He gave an entertaining introductory speech, both in Spanish and English, which I had a hard time understanding because he spoke quite rapidly.

enrique giving his introductory speech

Then at about 820 everyone embarked up the trail, dogs and all, with Enrique leading the way. He had a helper bring up the rear, I suppose to assist anyone who needed help.

off we go

The first half of the trail has a moderate grade with reasonable footing on dirt and rock. We set a pretty stiff pace I thought considering the size and variety of the crowd.

on the way, with mt. solmar ahead

About half way up Enrique stopped at a big flat spot and spoke to the crowd again for about five or ten minutes about local history, energy fields of the area and of the universe, and such things.

enrique giving his mid-hike talk

The climb the rest of the way to the top was much steeper, with minor rock scrambling needed in many places.

getter steeper

and a little rougher

There were twenty or so people ahead of me with the rest of the pack trailing behind.

boats in cabo bay

I stepped on top at about ten after nine. The views from this magnificent vantage point were spectacular! I climbed on top of the highest rock and sat there for several minutes soaking in the views on this beautiful morning. Then I climbed over to the east end of the summit ridge for more views.

land's end, at the very tip of the baja peninsula.  the pacific ocean is to the right and the sea of cortez is to the left.

a cruise ship in cabo bay

climbers on the summit

cabo san lucas and the marina

part of the grand solmar resort below on the pacific side

climbers were scattered about on the summit rocks

a view of our resort below, toward the bottom of the photo

After about half an hour or more on the summit Enrique began leading the way down. 

heading down

I got to the bottom about ten minutes after ten. Enrique stood at the gate collecting tips as people filed out. I contributed ten dollars and thought to myself that Enrique has quite a little gold mine here. The hike is certainly well worth it and I would certainly do it again because Mt. Solmar is such a spectacular and unique vantage point.

I could not find an official elevation for Mt. Solmar anywhere but I estimated its elevation to be about 460 feet above sea level based on my GPS reading. The hike started near the marina at an elevation of about 10 feet above sea level. I observed the surrounding terrain and noted what I would call a "saddle" close to our resort at an elevation of about 70 feet, which would make Mt. Solmar an officially ranked peak, by U. S. standards at least, since it has a prominence of more than 300 feet.

Cabo may be our new favorite wintertime getaway place. January high temperatures are consistently in the 70’s, there is only 4 inches of rain a year, with almost none in the winter, moderate humidity, endless sunshine, whales, activities, the ocean, sunsets, at about the same latitude as Honolulu, and only a three hour flight from Denver – it certainly checks all the boxes. What’s not to like?