For most of the week, the paved spine of Mission Trails Regional Park is a construction zone. On Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., you can't walk the Father Junipero Serra Trail between Gate 1 near the Visitor Center and Gate 10 at Old Mission Dam. That rule stays in place until Spring 2027. On weekends, and on weekday evenings after the crews leave, the whole trail is open. Meanwhile, the biggest improvement planned for the park's most popular climb isn't coming from the city budget. It's coming through the park's nonprofit partner, which just secured nearly $1 million for South Fortuna.
For Del Cerro, San Carlos, and Allied Gardens neighbors who treat Mission Trails as a backyard, this means the park now runs on a schedule. A water authority sets the weekday hours while a nonprofit foundation raises the money for the trails, and the free program calendar mostly fills the hours the construction leaves open.
Who holds the Serra Trail on weekdays
The weekday closure is part of the East County Advanced Water Purification Project. A large temporary pipeline sits above ground along the length of the Father Junipero Serra Trail. It starts at the east end near the campground, leaves the park onto Mission Gorge Road, and follows that road down to Conestoga Way. In all, it runs about 20,500 feet, or 3.9 miles, and it will stay in place until 2028.
The pipeline carries flow around an older sewer line under the trail while crews rehabilitate it. The work uses sliplining, where a new pipe is pulled through the old one, along with open-cut digging. The bypass line has been buried at trailheads and intersections so people can still get in and out. During work hours you can still walk the Serra Trail from either end, but you'll have to turn around when you reach an active site. After hours, the excavations are fenced, and ramps let any animal that wanders in climb back out. Crews have also raised the pipeline on extra blocks so wildlife can pass underneath.
Here is how a week works out under the posted notice:
| When | Serra Trail, Gate 1 to Gate 10 | What that suits |
|---|---|---|
| Mon–Fri, before 7 a.m. | Full length passable | Early loops past Old Mission Dam |
| Mon–Fri, 7 a.m.–4 p.m. | No through access; turn around at work sites | Out-and-backs from either end, Visitor Center programs |
| Mon–Fri, after 4 p.m. | Full length passable | After-work walks and rides |
| Saturday and Sunday | Full length passable | The complete paved route, plus most of the free programs |
The park's notice is undated, and the park points visitors to a map for planning around the work sites. East County AWP has an interactive construction map, and its project line is 619-258-4644. Check one of them before a weekday outing that depends on a particular stretch.
The calendar already fits around it
The park's free programming mostly avoids the weekday construction window. The volunteer Trail Guides lead Guided Nature Walks from the Visitor Center every Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday at 9:30 a.m. They also lead walks from Kumeyaay Lake Campground at 8:30 a.m. on the second and fourth Saturdays, Wildlife Tracking Walks from the East Fortuna Field Station at 8 a.m. on the first Saturday, and Bird Walks at 8 a.m. on the third Saturday and the Friday before it. All of these are free, and none needs a reservation. The Visitor Center is at One Father Junipero Serra Trail, right by Gate 1, and the campground is at Two Father Junipero Serra Trail. The Visitor Center is listed as open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The rest of the season, in date order:
- Friday, Oct. 16, at sunset. Stars at West Sycamore, with San Diego Astronomy Association telescopes set up at the east end of Stonebridge Parkway in Scripps Ranch. It depends on the weather.
- Saturday, Oct. 17, 1 p.m. Family Discovery Walks start again at Kumeyaay Lake Campground. October's theme is Kumeyaay Kids, and the theme changes each month through June.
- Saturday, Oct. 17, 2 p.m. A free Concerts in the Park performance by the Left Coast Woodwind ensemble in the Visitor Center Amphitheater. You don't need to register. The city's listing has it running until 3:30 p.m. and calls the group a quintet, while the foundation's newsletter calls it a quartet.
- Friday, Oct. 23, 5–7 p.m. Just outside the park, San Carlos Community Park at 6445 Lake Badin Ave. holds a free Halloween carnival. The costume contest starts at 5:30 p.m.
- Saturday, Oct. 31, 10 a.m.–1 p.m. Spider and bat Discovery Tables at the Visitor Center. The year's last Birding Basics class follows at 1 p.m.
- Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 14–15, 9 a.m.–3 p.m. The annual Mission Trails Holiday Marketplace at the Visitor Center.
- Saturday, Dec. 5, 2 p.m. Westwind Brass, a group of musicians from Patrick Henry High School, plays a holiday concert in the amphitheater.
The foundation's Trail Tykes program meets at the Visitor Center every Wednesday and Sunday at 10 a.m. It's for children ages 2 to 5, with stories, crafts, and short walks. Registration is required, and the suggested donation is $5 per family. Like the Wednesday nature walk, it starts at the Visitor Center end of the park and doesn't need the full trail.
Who is paying for the next big change
The same nonprofit behind that calendar is also the one bringing in the money for the park's physical repairs. As KPBS reported, the San Diego River Conservancy's governing board approved a $990,102 grant on Thursday, Oct. 8. The money will rebuild the South Fortuna staircase that hikers call the "Stairway to Heaven."
The KPBS story gives a sense of the scale. More than 60,000 hikers use the trail each year. Weather, erosion, and heavy use have left some wooden steps unstable and others shifted or gone. Hikers stepping around the bad spots have widened the corridor by an estimated 10 to 15 feet on each side. The plan replaces about 630 linear feet of steps with natural stone, covering roughly 282 feet of elevation gain. It stays on the existing alignment and adds drainage, new signage, and restoration along the trail edges.
The foundation is managing the grant and putting in a $15,000 match. The city's Parks and Recreation Department will handle design review. Speaking to KPBS, MTRP Foundation Executive Director Jennifer Morrissey described the foundation's job as stepping up to "find resources and help the city accomplish important projects that benefit the public."
According to the foundation, construction and helicopter-supported material delivery will happen outside bird nesting season. The KPBS report doesn't give a start date or say whether the trail will close while the work is underway. For now, the old wooden staircase is still the route up.
The larger project already underway
South Fortuna follows a pattern that's already well established. Since September 2024, the foundation's contractor, RECON Environmental, has been removing invasive plants and restoring habitat across about 756 acres of the park. So far it has hauled out 29 forty-yard containers of green waste, 62.02 tons in all, which the foundation compares to the weight of about 31 average passenger cars. That work is funded by a separate $1.8 million award from the San Diego River Conservancy, also administered by the foundation in coordination with the city. The grant runs through fall 2027.
Put the two grants side by side and they total about $2.8 million in state conservancy money, all coming through one nonprofit. The pipeline schedule runs into 2028, and the habitat grant runs through fall 2027. If the stairs follow once nesting season allows, many neighbors will probably remember this stretch of Mission Trails as a time of rebuilding. On any given day, how much of that work you see depends on when you get to the trailhead. On a Saturday morning, the Serra Trail runs its full length, the Trail Guides start at 9:30, and the pipeline runs along the trail with its excavations fenced off.
How close a home is to Gate 1, the Kumeyaay Lake Campground, or the South Fortuna climb affects how its owners use the park, especially in a season when the hours keep changing. If you're thinking about how Mission Trails fits into a move within Del Cerro or nearby, Maxine & Marti Gellens would be glad to walk through the neighborhood with you. Contact Us.
