This was just a great trip, modulo some minor car issues (that a year later would show themselves as a major issue, but I digress). Anyway! Jake was out in Pasadena for a conference, and he wanted to go hiking, so I suggested we go out to Mount San Jacinto, which is one of the three notable peaks of Southern California – this one completed the trifecta for me. The summit is at 10,834′, and has a really notable escarpment – however, we bypassed a bit of that by taking the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, which takes us up about a linear mile. This turns the RT hike into “only” 11 miles, and 2450′ or so of elevation gain. I had never been up to the area before, and it was really quite awesome.
You can see pretty far away, and pretty far down, from the summit.
This was definitely a hike I had wanted to do for quite some time, and Jake coming down to visit gave me the opportunity I needed. I asked him if he would be interested in this hike, and as he acquiesced, we were off! The San Jacinto mountains rise high high high above Palm Springs and the desert, very steep to the east, and somewhat more sloping to the west. Mount San Jacinto itself is in the San Jacinto State Wilderness in the Mount San Jacinto State Park. The greater area of the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument is a mishmosh of various lands, administered by several agencies:
“The National Monument’s boundary encompasses about 272,000 acres, including 65,000 acres within the San Jacinto Ranger District of the San Bernardino National Forest, and 89,500 acres within the Bureau of Land Management’s California Desert Conservation Area. The National Monument includes two federal Wilderness Areas: the Santa Rosa Wilderness which contains 61,600 acres of BLM and Forest Service lands, and 19,470 acres of the Forest Service’s San Jacinto Wilderness. Its boundary also surrounds lands owned and administered by the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, California Department of Parks and Recreation, California Department of Fish and Game, other agencies of the State of California, and private landowners.”
(with more info here)
So, there are a few ways to get up to the park, but the easiest (and something I had never done) is to take the Tramway from just above Palm Springs to the heights of the park. Most of the ride there is interstate, and flat roads, and suddenly there is a turnoff road that starts gaining some elevation, and that really is very very steep as you get into the parking lot. My car was overheating and seemingly not having as much power, but we made it into a spot, and I decided not to worry about something I couldn’t deal with at the time.
View from the parking lot. Quite an escarpment wall!
When we arrived, we got our tram tickets and waited for the ride up. They’re not cheap, but really, the tram ride was awesome. Definitely worthwhile to do even for itself, to fly a mile up into the air and ascend from the desert into trees. The cabin rotates as it goes, so no one has to shove to one side or another. Upon getting to the top, we went out, down the really annoying concrete covered switchback walkway into Long Valley, picked up a hiking permit at the ranger station, and headed out.
Counterweight partner tram on the descent.
Now, the ranger station is marked as 8415′, so this isn’t low to start with! First two miles flattish, going through pleasant forest and meadows (with those crazy Sierra Nevada water plants!) , passing the campsite in Round Valley, and then starts ascending a bit to get to Wellman Divide, which both has great views and was a really great place to stop for a break.
The view from Wellman Divide. In B&W for bonus artiness. But yeah, there is some forest up there.
From there the trail turns, and we started picking our way a bit more uphill, through rockier and progressively more gorgeous landscape, going past a couple of trail junctions and enjoying where we were given the view of the desert down below. This really felt the most like actually being in the Sierra Nevadas of any hike I’ve done in Southern California, including Baldy and Gorgonio. It is simply stunning up there, and I am shocked I didn’t really know this before.
Stopping for a view of the view.
As you approach the summit, you pass a stone hut (I think of CCC origin?) and then the trail turns more into “picking your way uphill” and we finally arrived at the summit. w00t! Summit! As this was the third for me of the SoCal trifecta, that was a pretty awesome feeling. 10,834′ says the sign up there. There were a fair number of people already up there, and the good sitting rocks were getting a bit crowded, but the views were still pretty fabulous, and it felt nice to just sit there and hang out for a while. After this sitting and hanging out, and taking some photos, we headed back down.
CCC hut on the way up.
Pretty popular up there, I must admit
But I guess we were part of what made it so popular!
The trip down was fairly uneventful, though I was definitely starting to get tired – my feet do get sore! And the very worst part was getting back to ~the tram station, and having to haul back up the steep, concrete covered pathway back up to the actual building. Admittedly, once I was up there, I was able to get a very highly desired ice cream, but even that was very expensive. Oh well. It was really super hot when we got back down to the bottom, and on the drive back we stopped at the A&W to get some root beer floats which were honestly pretty fabulous. The drive back was all a little dicey due to car stuff, but it seems to have all worked out ok in the end.
A view of more of the forest
Some stark edges I saw
Delicious, earned, delicious.
