This is a trip description for the trail Marion Mountain Trail to the San Jacinto Peak. We left a little early for the trail head is about 2 hours from where I live ( in south Orange County ). There is a bit of extra time to go into the town of Idllywild and fill out a permit. See the last part of this post for more info.
The trail head is well marked. Make sure to park at the trail head and not the Marion Mountain campground. It is just a few minutes more up the road. We started off at 7:45 am with high spirits and a much too fast pace. This first section of the trail is hiking through a mix of oak trees and pines. After about 20 minutes of hiking, the oak trees area all gone and only the pine trees remain. During this part of the hike, the trail follows a constant grade with several areas where you need to step up over rocks and logs. It feels a lot like climbing stairs. The scenery was great. The sun filtered down trough the trees and we had a cool climb to the Deer Spring trail junction.
This was a very nice part of the climb. I like hiking the north and west approaches as there sun is low and not so hot. This is much better than hiking Baldy for example where the sun beats down on you relentlessly. One interesting observation for the lower part of this hike. There was a lot of logging activity. It appeared that the forest was being thinned and all the dead trees and underbrush was being removed. We could not figure out how the trees where being removed as there where no roads, mule tracks, tractor tracks etc. We ran into a few workers ( hard hats and vests ) that informed us that they where using a helicopter to transport the trees and brush to a staging area for eventually trucking out.
Near the 1.5 mile marker was an exception lookout over toward fuller ridge. It made for a very nice place to stop and snack. We continued up the trail and passed a few small streams with wetland plants around. I nice change from the woods. The trail keeps going up and up. Not as steep as other trails but up none-the-less.
After hiking for what seemed like a long time, we finally made it to the Deer Springs junction. We then passed Seven pines trail and 20 minutes later the fuller ridge trail. We started traversing a slope up a steep ridge that was covered with low shrubs. It turned out that the trail went through the shrubs. The reason I mention this is the shrubs need a bit of trimming for they almost cover the trail. They are also sharp. It resulted in many scratches on my exposed legs. I was envious of those that wore long pants through this area.
From here, we ascended over the ridge that lead into a small, flat area I believe is little round valley. There was a nice meadow area near the center with a very small stream passing through the middle. It looked like a spring fed stream. There is a camp ground here with not one… but two outhouses. Maybe one for the guys and one for the girls, I did not stop to check. The area was flat and is a nice resting stop before venturing to the summit about 1.5 miles further.
The trail from this point is a bit more exposed than the lower sections. There are still more trees than the Baldy trails however. We also started to pass a lot bigger, round rocks. The rocks become more and more present as the trail climbs to the pass. The pass is where the trail crests the ridge and starts down the south and east part of the mountain. By the way, we are still on the Deer Springs trail. Just a few minutes past this crest, we encounter an old hut that the Sierra club made way back when. We slowly opened the door and found that people were sleeping over. I wonder if they take reservations as the ski hut on the Baldy trail does. The trail to the peak from this point is no longer a trail. It is a series of big rocks. Each hiker or climber at this point, gets to decide the best way to the top. It is probably about a 50 yard boulder hop to the top. Say that 10 times fast. Just as long as you know that there is no trail, just rocks you will do fine. It took my friends and me about 8 minutes to figure this out after watching people make their way up and down from the peak.
The peak offers spectacular 360 degree views. This is what a peak should look like. The peak marker is set near the highest boulder and secured by a bunch of smaller rocks. There is room for just a few people at the very top. We stayed for about 40 minutes or so talking and see how brave the squirrels where. We stared talking to Whitney man ( he has climbed up Whitney 14 times ) and asked him how Whitney compares to this. He indicated that if we could do this one ( from Marion, not the Tram ) we should be ok.
We stared hiking down around 1:00 pm or so and made it back down the trail head around 5:00 pm. Whitney man passed us ( after taking a nap at the top ) around 3:00. It took us nearly 4 hours to get back down. It took almost 5 going up. According to the maps, this was maybe an eleven mile hike. We hiked up and down Bear Canyon in the same time. I have a hard time believing this is only 11 or so miles. This was however one of my more enjoyable trips. I highly recommend it.
Next up for us: Mount Whitney on Sept 4, 2009.
Trail head info:
There are 4 basic trails (yes, there are more…. Seven Pines etc.) that will take the would-be hiker to the top of San Jacinto from trail heads near and in Idllywild. All require a permit but only one requires you to contact the ranger station in advance. That is the Devils Slide Trail. You need the rangers to issue you a permit for this one.
Note that all trails will eventually lead to the Deer Springs trail. It is confusing at first but the Deer Springs Trail is the only trail that passes by the Peak. Marion, Deer Springs ( trail head ) and Fuller Ridge all connect to the Deer Springs trail on the west side of the mountain and continue past the peak and down the south side of the mountain. The Devil’s Slide trail joins the Deer Springs trail on the south side of the mountain and hike North West. Hmmm. Try to get a map first.
