Well, hello again.
I was thinking, and why not start a hiking blog with the first hike Audrey and I have done together in Palm Springs! I guess you could even say this is the hike that got us going on this whole Cactus to Clouds trip, since this trail represents the last 12 miles of that hike.
The San Jacinto Peak Trail
We did this hike back in July 2013, right after we got married. This hike is easily the longest we've done so far and it was a beaut! Not a hard trail to follow at all, I'm sure 100 people a day take the 12 mile out and back, so the trail is kept pretty fresh. The trail starts at the Mountain Station of the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway at 8,500ft and ends at the peak at 10,800ft. Let the journey begin!
The trail begins by taking the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway up to Mountain Station at about 8,500ft elevation. Despite what I thought when I was younger, Mountain Station is not the peak :( but it's considerably close in the grand scheme of things.
(A little off topic, but if you haven't taken the tram up the mountain, or haven't in awhile, you definitely should! The 6,000ft climb in the rotating basket provides some of the best views Southern California has to offer.) Back to the track!
Upon arrival you exit the station, and descend a long concrete path to Long Valley. At this point you're still in the San Jacinto State Park (correct me if I'm wrong) which has a few good near by trails (Desert View Trail, Nature Trail, etc). But don't get distracted, we're interested in the San Jacinto Peak Trail!
(Also a little off topic, I hope I don't make this a habit, but I'm not a big fan of reading about hikes when the author uses names for the specific features or locations of the trail, without showing them on a map...like 'man we hiked 10 miles from Fraggle Rock to Holloway Hill! It was crazy!' big whoop, I have no idea what your talking about! So I'm going to always have a map with things called out. If I don't, just yell at me. If I don't have a map I'll draw it by hand, so help me God.) Back to the track.
From Round Valley you work your way to the Ranger Station, impossible to miss, as it represents the imaginary border to the "wilderness". Go in to the station, fill out the little 'If I don't come back, please find me' card and your all set! Also at the Ranger Station is this little gem of a map so I snapped it in case we got lost:
Once you leave the Ranger Station, you've entered the "wilderness", sounds pretty cool, but looks a lot like everywhere else up there, so don't get too excited ;). From the station, you walk pretty much dead west past lots of trees, meadows, and camp grounds. The climate up there is profoundly different from the desert floor so, of course, you stop and take a hundred pictures.
After a good bit of hiking, some pretty good elevation gain, and a few terrible guesses about which mountain ahead of you is actually the peak of San Jacinto you come to a clearing. AND WHAT A CLEARING IT IS. I'm of course talking about Wellman's Divide, basically the far western edge of the plateau you've hiked. (see map). I can't do Wellman's Divide any justice with my words so I'm going to reference you to the pics below, but WOW, in such a seemingly short distance you can see all the way to Palomar Mountain and the Temecula Hills to the south, and rolling hills as far as the eyes can see to the west. Needless to say you take lots of pictures.
Now some people hike to Wellman's Divide and call it day, I don't blame them, but not us. We take the switch back and start to head up to the peak. After the turn, you hike up and up through a series of long switch backs. All along these switch backs you have a view all the way back to the tram station where you started. Once you finish the switch back you come to a flat area (where the peak trail meets the deer springs trail on the map). You make the short assent to an awesome rock cabin available for hikers to stay a night, and realize to get to the peak peak, you have to scramble up some pretty big rocks, but it's absolutely worth it! When they say you get 360 degree views they're not kidding. Hopefully none of you get so unlucky as to hit the peak on a cloudy or foggy day. Suck in the clear air, enjoy the views, eat some lunch, take some pics.
Head back the way you came, enjoy Wellman's Divide once again, and find your way to the tram. Oh yeah, make sure you don't waste all your energy, you still have to ascend the long concrete sidewalk up to Mountain Station, and trust me it gets steeper the longer you hike. YOU MADE IT! Time to enjoy some good ole brew and enjoy the fine photography you took.
Notes:
This is a long 12 mile hike with no water. Don't be dumb and go at it with one bottle, or nothing. My wife and I completed the round trip with 2.0L and had a little left over.
Start at a reasonable time. The whole hike took us about 5.5 hours. Even if you're a quick hiker you're probably going to stop and take pics and enjoy the peak, you don't want to hike in the dark.
Pictures!
Yes..those are my fingers...apparently I suck at taking pics with the GoPro...
