Trip report
Apr 23, 2023 — Grass Mountain is a bald summit outside of Green Valley CA that I enjoyed accessing via the Pacific Crest Trail. It seems many prefer to hike to the peak via the Leona Divide Truck Trail, but SoCal already has so many road walk ascents that I try to take advantage of a trail when one exists. I started from a small pine grove from San Francisquito Canyon Road where the PCT crosses it. The trail initially passes a firehouse and heads west. The PCT wraps in and out of a few drainages as it tends to do, slowly gaining elevation. It soon meets a fire road, where you'll be tempted to take a left, following the flow of the trail, but the PCT actually continues along this road to the right for a couple hundred feet and rejoins on the road's opposite side. I imagine many through-hikers get confused here.
From here it was more ascending gradually above Green Valley, lovely sights toward Jupiter Mountain coming into view across the valley. The majority of the hike takes place in this fashion, a pleasant ascent along the southern slope of Grass Mountain, until reaching a junction with a service road higher up. Rather than hike the road to the summit of Grass Mountain, I recommend taking the meadowy ridgeline where a nice dirt trail has been carved into the grass. The summit has a radio tower constructed in a small grassy clearing.