To bump the previous posts, it's unlikely you will see them even if they're there.

I used to live in America's Finest City and spent many a weekend away from the beach and in the mtns. At one time (don't know if it's still active) Cuyamaca Rancho ran an extensive mtn lion study program (tracking, etc...) and if they still do, those guys may be around and can provide all kinds of info. You can check w Park Service to see if study is still going on.

Basically risk is very minimal considering they are just elusive by nature. One other reason they are so rare is their territory, particularly for the males, is huge >100SqMi so you wouldn't have a lot of lions in any particular area. From what the program guys said, they would be most prominent in Pine Valley, Lagunas, Cuyamaca area but do reach as far south as Campo, as far east as Hellhole Canyon/Ranchita and north to Riverside County line and beyond. Areas with hobby animals like llamas and of course plentiful mule deer are where they would be found. All that being said, with all the daytrips, the only lion I've ever seen in SoCal was Whiting Ranch, OC back around 2001/2002 and that area has, unfortunately, become synonymous with lions.

Just be a little more aware at dawn/dusk when they are active, and if you have an encounter, make yourself as large as possible, hold hands up and make a lot of noise. Don't crouch and don't run. Like WY said if it came down to it, fight hard, go for the snout and eyes.


As all are seemingly in agreement, you've got more chance of coming to my town and winning a couple cars on the slots than being attacked.

Have fun! There are unbelievable areas in SD and I don't get back as much as I'd like...

I've been hiking in various parts of California at least once a week for 17 years and have seen mountain lions once in that entire time. I say "lions" as it was a female with a couple of cubs (a very cool sight, one of my top all time wildlife sightings) and they were lying in the grass approx 30 yards up a hill from the trail I was running on. I was on a very popular trail near a reservoir (Crystal Springs) in the middle of a suburban part of the SF Peninsula, though the fact that the reservoir has lots of deer and the surrounding lands are fenced off from human access perhaps explains the presence of lions there. Another friend who has done a lot of hiking in CA has only seen them near his former home high in the Berkeley hills, where they probably lived off the Tilden Park deer population. My suspicion is that if you live in a suburban area, especially near a park where deer live, you'll be as likely to see a mountain lion walking your dog near home as you are seeing one on a remote trail, which is to say, not very likely at all.

I’ve seen two or three times mountain lions in BA but never in other mountains. People always told me I had to be lucky to see one. The scariest encounter I’ve had, however, was years ago in Golden Gate Recreational Area where the lion crossed my trail. I stopped quietly and let the beast pass trough. The enormous muscular cat did not show any aggression or fear, just walked with pride. When (I thought) it was far away enough to feel safe again I took out my slide camera and prepared to take a picture. At that moment the mountain lion stopped and looked at me with warning (it felt like our thoughts were exchanged telepathically) and I immediately realized how a big mistake I made and vulnerable was if the lion wanted to proceed.

Statistic are very useful as reference, just make sure not to become one.

The risks of being killed are low, but I've personally met several people who've been stalked and had very scary experiences with lions. I personally think it's wise to hike with another person, for not just this reason.

If you want just 'bulk' numbers, then consider there are roughly 30,000 people killed annually as a result of vehicle accidents in the USA, and roughly 10 times that many suffer permenant injury from vehicle accidents. Number of people killed by mountain lions is far, far less than 1 per year. I like the mountain lion odds a lot better.

In 35 years of hiking, with the overwhelming majority of that time being in California, I've only seen one mountain lion, and that was in eastern Nevada in the Snake Mountains at the south end of Great Basin Natl Park (a very remote area) at dawn when I just happened to stick my head out of my tent and it was drinking water from a lake about 100 yds away from me. Damn, I was the luckiest guy in the world that morning to see such a great site!

lasvegaswraith wrote:I used to live in America's Finest City and spent many a weekend away from the beach and in the mtns. At one time (don't know if it's still active) Cuyamaca Rancho ran an extensive mtn lion study program (tracking, etc...) and if they still do, those guys may be around and can provide all kinds of info. You can check w Park Service to see if study is still going on.

It would be pretty interesting to see how that study would look now, post-2003 and 2007 fires, and what the effect of those fires was on the lions' habitat. There's still decent forest coverage in the Lagunas, but huge swaths of Cuyamaca are now ghost forest, so I would think that a lot of the lions' cover has disappeared. Although, what's grown back might provide just as good, if not better cover for them. Just less chance of death from above.

Three years ago I was camping at Cuyamaca and my girl and I went for a shortish hike that departs and loops back into the campground. No more than a few miles. At one point we were surrounded by short bushes in what I think was a burn area that was growing back.

We both heard what sounded like house cats meowing. More than one of them and they were close to the trail. I instantly urged my girlfriend to move on and mentioned it could be bobcats so not to freak her out with the more likely possibility that they were lion cubs. We never saw anything but it was a reminder that you can be a few feet away from a dangerous animal and never even know it.

Regardless, I used to hike solo all the time in San Diego and never once feared for a lion. Be worried about rattlesnakes and human beings since you will see them and they are much more dangerous. Just in case...carry a knife, practice getting it ready, and keep it in an easily accessed place.

An attack by a predatory animal is a decision. Unless they are incredibly desperate they will weigh out the risk very carefully and it doesn't take much to convince them that you aren't worth it. So that is why you try to appear larger, sound threatening, and throw rocks.

Did my remote Ramona area hike/mountain-bike solo today (the one I was too afraid to do last week) and loved it. I was so fried biking up that climb that I didn't have the energy to worry about big cats. Loved it out there!

I also realized that all the road biking I do in big traffic is far more risky than hiking solo with mountain lions. Plus last week talked to a couple hunters (fat guys who probably couldn't walk much over 100 yards) with binoculars sitting under a tree in the parking area who told me they've seen plenty of mountain lions. They said "those lions are well fed and they aren't going to bother you". OK.

A year and a half ago driving down the eastern side of Highway 108 sometime about 9PM or so there were 3 Mountain Lion laying on the road. They scattered pretty quickly but we were able to see them long enough that it was a very cool site. For a period of time we could see their eyes, so we turned around in hopes to see them again as one of them, probably a cub was separated from the other two. Figured it might try to cross the road at some point, but never got another glimpse of them.