David Blome was about 15 feet behind a mountain lion during an early morning run on the Grasslands Loop Trail at Mission Trails Regional Park when he realized the animal was closing in. Within moments, the cougar had crept to within 5 to 8 feet of him, teeth bared, muscles coiled as if ready to pounce. Blome yelled and made himself as large as he could, and the lion peeled off, though it kept watching him as it retreated.
Blome later said the encounter left him shaken enough to fear it could have turned fatal, according to 10News. His run through the eastern section of the 8,000-acre park is only the latest in a series of mountain lion sightings that park rangers say has been building since June, with nine confirmed mountain lion sightings logged in that span.
He was not the only one to have a run-in this summer. Gabe Yanez encountered a mountain lion during an evening jog on a trail west of Blome's route, and he too scared it off by waving, yelling, and screaming. Yanez managed to photograph the animal during the standoff, and Blome later said the cougar in those photos appeared roughly the same size as the one that stalked him, per the same 10News account.
A Park Built for Wildlife Encounters
Mission Trails Regional Park is not some pocket-sized city greenbelt. Established in 1974 and spanning more than 8,000 acres with roughly 60 to 65 miles of trails, it ranks as the largest municipally owned park in California and the seventh-largest urban open-space park in the entire country, according to the City of San Diego. Mountain lions are native to the park, and its sprawling canyon corridors sit just eight miles northeast of downtown, wedged against residential neighborhoods that make wildlife overlap all but inevitable.
Research cameras have been tracking that overlap in real time. Camera traps maintained by Point Loma Nazarene University captured a mountain lion on June 29, while a confirmed sighting in Suycott Valley was reported on July 23, as reported by the Times of San Diego. The park has also had documented mountain lion sightings. Warning signs remain posted throughout the park, alongside guidance urging visitors to stay alert.
A Roadkill Adds a New Wrinkle
Park officials posted that a mountain lion was struck and killed by a vehicle on Highway 67 this month, but they did not establish whether that animal was the same cougar responsible for the summer's sightings and close encounters inside the park. The San Diego Tracking Team has surveyed culverts under Highway 67, according to the San Diego Tracking Team.
That uncertainty matters for a broader reason than just curiosity. Ongoing wildlife tracking studies across Southern California show that freeways and dense development are fragmenting cougar populations into isolated ecological islands, making vehicle strikes one of the leading causes of death for local big cats, per the Center for Biological Diversity. In February 2026, the Fish and Game Commission voted to list six Southern California and Central Coast populations as threatened.
Why Lethal Action Is Rarely on the Table
California voters limited how far wildlife officers can go in situations like this back in 1990, when they passed Proposition 117. The measure, known as the California Wildlife Protection Act, classifies mountain lions as specially protected mammals, banning sport hunting and restricting lethal management, with exceptions for threats to livestock or health and public safety, according to California Legislative Information. Warning signs remain posted throughout the park, alongside guidance urging visitors to stay alert.
Despite the fear such encounters generate, verified mountain lion attacks on humans remain extremely rare in California. State wildlife records document fewer than 25 verified attacks and six fatal incidents statewide since 1890, according to CBS News. A fatal attack near Georgetown in El Dorado County killed a 21-year-old man and injured his 18-year-old brother, as reported by YubaNet.
What Officials Recommend Doing Now
Official guidance from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife tells anyone who encounters a mountain lion to stay calm, avoid turning away or running, raise their arms to look bigger, make loud noise, and fight back aggressively if actually attacked. Blome's decision to yell and expand his posture lines up directly with that guidance, and he now recommends other visitors prepare for the possibility by running with a buddy or carrying an air horn.
Whether one lion or several are now using Mission Trails' canyons remains an open question park officials have not resolved.
