San Jacinto Mountains a Magical Place

The San Jacinto Mountain range is one of those magical places that lures hikers back year after year. Hikers enjoy the contrasts this range offers--the feeling of hiking in Switzerland while gazing down on the Sahara.

Author Carey McWilliams called Southern California an island on the land. The San Jacinto Mountains could well be described the same. The 10,000-foot peaks of the San Jacintos are separated from the rest of Southern California by low passes and desert valleys. The range is bounded by San Gorgonio Pass on the north, the San Jacinto Valley on the west, the Colorado Desert and the Coachella Valley on the east and Anza-Borrego Desert State Park to the south. The San Jacintos seem an island in the sky because of their incredibly rapid rise from the desert floor; in no other place in California do alpine and desert vegetation thrive in such close proximity.

Palm Springs Aerial Tramway makes it easy for hikers to enter Mt. San Jacinto State Wilderness. Starting in Chino Canyon near Palm Springs, a tram takes passengers from 2,643-foot Lower Tramway Terminal (Valley Station) to 8,516-foot Upper Tramway Terminal (Mountain Station) at the edge of the wilderness.

The day hiker accustomed to remote trailheads may find it bizarre to enter Valley Station and find jittery tourists sipping beers and shopping for souvenirs. The gondola rapidly leaves terra firma behind. Too rapidly, you think. It carries you over one of the most abrupt mountain faces in the world, over cliffs only a bighorn sheep can scale, over several life zones from palms to pines. When you disembark at Mountain Station, your ears will pop and you’ll have quite a head start up Mt. San Jacinto.

Directions to trailhead: From Interstate 10, exit on California 111 (the road to Palm Springs). Proceed nine miles to Tramway Road, turn right, and follow the road four miles to its end at Mountain Station.

For the summer, Tramway operating hours for Saturday and Sunday are 8 a.m. to 10:45 p.m.; Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 10:45 p.m. Adult fare is $11.95, children 3-12, $7.95.

The tramway will be closed for its annual maintenance during the second and third weeks of September. Tramway schedules: (619) 325-1391.

State park trail information can be obtained from the Long Valley Ranger Station: (619) 327-0222.

The hike: From Mountain Station, walk down the cement walkway through the Long Valley Picnic Area. Soon you will arrive at the state park ranger station. Obtain a wilderness permit here.

Continue west on the trail, following the signs to Round Valley. The trail parallels Long Valley Creek through a mixed forest of pine and white fir, then climbs into lodgepole pine country. Lupine, monkey flower, scarlet bugler and Indian paintbrush are some of the wildflowers in bloom at this time of year.

After passing a junction with a trail leading toward Willow Creek, another three-tenths of a mile of hiking brings you to Round Valley. There’s a campground and backcountry ranger station (manned on weekends) in the valley and splendid places to picnic in the meadow or among the lodgepole pines. There’s also a water spigot where you can fill your canteen.

An alternative to returning the same way is to retrace your steps three-tenths of a mile back to the junction with the Willow Creek Trail, take this trail a mile through the pines to another signed junction, and follow the signed trail north back to Long Valley Ranger Station. This alternative route adds only about one-fourth of a mile to your day hike and allows you to make a loop.

Option: To Mt. San Jacinto Peak. From Round Valley, follow the signs to Wellman Divide Junction. At the divide, you will be treated to spectacular views of Tahquitz Peak, as well as the more distant Toro Peak and Santa Rosa Mountain. You continue toward the peak on some vigorous switchbacks. The lodgepole pines grow sparse among the crumbly granite. At another junction, one-half mile from the top, the trail continues to Little Round Valley, but you take the summit trail to the peak. Soon you arrive at a stone shelter--an example of Civilian Conservation Crew handiwork during the 1930s--built for mountaineers who have the misfortune to be caught in winter storms. From the stone hut, walk among the boulders to the peak.

The view from the summit--San Gorgonio Pass, the San Bernardino Mountains, the Colorado Desert, distant Mexico--has struck some visitors speechless while others have been unable to control their superlatives. Helen Hunt Jackson’s heroine Ramona found “a remoteness from Earth which comes only on mountain heights” and John Muir found the view “the most sublime spectacle to be found anywhere on this Earth!”

Return the same way.

Mt. San Jacinto Trail

Upper Tramway Terminal to Round Valley: 4 1/2 miles roundtrip, 600-foot elevation gain. Upper Tramway Terminal to San Jacinto Peak: 12 miles round trip, 2,300-foot elevation gain. Wilderness permit required