We(I) have had this hike on my bucket list for a few years. If you are familiar with Palm Springs, they have a tram that transports you from sea level to 8500 feet on the San Jacinto Mountain Range. The trip is beautiful as you see the entire Coachella Valley and is a 20 minute trip. It is extremely popular as you can walk or hike once you reach the top and a restaurant at the top as well. However, 8500 feet is not the top, so you can hike down to 7900 feet, get a permit and hike to the peak at roughly 11,000 feet. Most of our hiking group signed on, and so, there was ten of us. Today is November 11, and may be the last weekend that you can complete this hike without snow.
We were at the tram station by 7:00 in order to be ensured of catching the first tram at 8:00. The parking attendant gave us parking lot A(eh) so must have known that we were Canadians. The weather can be very iffy up there so we packed for hot, cool and cold which made for larger packs.
The elevation gain was not extreme but steadily up as we covered 3000 feet roughly over 11 miles, there and back. The scenery on top was outstanding and worth the effort and we had a tired bunch by the end. That altitude is really different as you are sucking for air and many of us felt a dizziness up there.
We did talk to people at the top that had hiked to the top from the bottom that day, 11000 feet! Crazy!
5
An old trapper’s cabin that is restored. It has bunks inside and can be used for emergencies. We were talking that the rangers likely help people off of this mountain every day as we noticed plenty of hikers that were ill prepared for this hike.
Funny, I was thinking “crazy” from the first mention of 8,500 ft. 😄
But I’m sure the view was worth the effort.
I am having trouble down loading anything here in Cabo, so I guess I’ll have to wait until I get home to look for pictures.
……did you post pics?
Sounds like an awesome hike, looking forward to seeing the pictures.