Mount Chiliad

Updated 30 October 2026 · Fan site. Not affiliated with Rockstar Games or Take-Two Interactive.

Mount Chiliad is the tallest mountain in Grand Theft Auto's San Andreas. It first appeared in GTA San Andreas (2004), in Whetstone south of San Fierro, and a new Mount Chiliad was built for GTA V (2013) in Blaine County. The GTA V version is known for its aerial tramway, a cryptic mural and a UFO that shows up after 100% completion.

What is Mount Chiliad in GTA?

Mount Chiliad is the name Rockstar gave to the highest peak in its fictional state of San Andreas. There are two of them, one for each continuity. The first was built for the 3D universe in GTA San Andreas, and the second for the HD universe in Grand Theft Auto V. They share a name and the title of tallest mountain, but they sit in different places on different maps. GTA Wiki notes that "chiliad" is a Latin-derived word for a group of a thousand, or a thousand years.

Mount Chiliad in GTA San Andreas (2004)

GTA San Andreas came out for the PlayStation 2 in October 2004; Wikipedia gives 26 October 2004 for North America. Its map joined three cities with countryside and desert. GTA Wiki places Mount Chiliad in western Whetstone, with San Fierro to the north and the small town of Angel Pine at its southern foot. Measured from the 3D model, the wiki gives a height of 525.9 m. It suggests Mount Diablo in Contra Costa County or Mount Whitney as the real model, with a possible touch of El Capitan in Yosemite.

Players mostly know it from the Chiliad Challenge, a side activity of daytime mountain-bike races from the summit down to the base. Wikipedia says that during the story Frank Tenpenny exiles Carl Johnson to the countryside to get rid of witnesses, and GTA Wiki says one of those jobs, Badlands, sends CJ to a cabin on the mountain to find a hidden informant. The summit has a parachute and body armour, and there is a stunt jump in the forest on the south-east side.

Mount Chiliad in GTA V (2013)

The HD-era mountain stands in the north of Blaine County, in the Chiliad Mountain State Wilderness. Paleto Bay lies to the north-west and Grapeseed to the south-east. GTA Wiki measures the in-game model at 797.1 m, while a sign at the top claims 2,744 m, so the game exaggerates. The western face above Paleto Bay is very steep; the eastern side is gentler and can be driven all the way to the summit. The wiki's best guess for the real model is Mount San Jacinto, with Mount San Antonio and San Gorgonio Mountain as other options.

An aerial tramway runs from a station at the base to one at the top. The summit has an observation deck with coin telescopes, a pair of dirt bikes and a hiking trail, and an old wooden ramp near the gondola station lets players launch off the edge. GTA Wiki notes that the tramway does not run in GTA Online.

What is the Mount Chiliad mystery?

Inside the upper tramway station is a hand-drawn mural of the mountain covered in symbols. GTA Wiki lists a UFO, an egg and what looks like a jetpack among them, and there are two sealed doors next to it. A red eye is painted on the rock below the observation deck, and small glyphs are hidden around the mountainside. Higgypop's 2017 write-up reads the glyphs as hints to come back at night, in a storm, at 3 am, once the story is complete.

That part was solved within a week of release, Higgypop says. After 100% completion, a player standing on the observation deck at 3 am during a storm sees a UFO hovering overhead; GTA Wiki adds that it carries FIB markings and vanishes if you get too close. Other UFOs appear over Beam Me Up near Sandy Shores, above Fort Zancudo, and as a wreck on the sea floor.

The rest of the mural is less settled. The jetpack symbol drove years of fan theories; Higgypop notes fans hoped for one because GTA San Andreas hid a jetpack at Area 69, and as of 2017 nobody had found it. GTA Wiki now links the drawing to later GTA Online content: the jetpack is used to escape a launch facility inside the mountain, and the egg ties in with a Smuggler's Run mission and turns up underwater at Cayo Perico. Whether Rockstar ever planned one complete answer has not been confirmed in anything we read.

What is inside Mount Chiliad in GTA Online?

A secret base. Wikipedia dates The Doomsday Heist to 12 December 2017 and says its finale has the player raid a missile base hidden in Mount Chiliad to stop a nuclear plot by the tech mogul Avon Hertz and his AI, Cliffford. GTA Wiki describes it as a 1960s US launch site, with Lester Crest among the player's allies. Wikipedia adds that a 2022 storyline sends the player back to the facility for the last traces of Cliffford's code.