Day 1

Dave and Chris drove over to our place at 6 am, and we were on the road by 7. It was an easy drive to Palm Springs – only about 2 hours. We had the classic McMuffin breakfast on the way (Dani got a heretical sausage burrito though). The first tram up was at 8 am, and we ended up on the 9:30 am trip. Thankfully, there wasn’t a huge line to get tickets, which were $30 each. Even this early in the morning, the temperature was already over 90 F at the bottom of the tram. As we ascended more than 6000 ft in 10 minutes, we felt the air cool to a nice 70 F or so. There were a ton of people with bouldering crash pads taking the tram up, and I happened to ask one of them where the good spots were. It turned out he was a setter at Hangar 18 in Orange – small world!

Tram Station (1)

At the top of the tram, we stopped for a quick look at the view of Palm Springs and the rest of the valley. Dave was grumpy about all the people and the “Disneyland” vibes. Classic.

The hike started with a set of concrete ramp switchbacks just below the tram station, leading to a ranger station a few hundred yards beyond. We opted to skip the highly-trafficked desert nature trail loop and get right into it. It turns out we could see the top of San Jacinto Peak, our final destination, from the tram station.

At the ranger station, we got a nice topo map and a detailed map of the campsites at Round Valley, where we were planning to stay the night. Dispersed camping is not allowed in the State Park, so we had to pick a specific site to camp at. The ranger also warned that there was a chance of thunderstorms before 11 pm that night. That didn’t end up happening, but it made Dave and Chris nervous because they didn’t bring a rain fly.

Round Valley (2)

The hike into Round Valley was not too bad. About 2.5 miles and 600 ft elevation gain. We took a lot of breaks at the start but once we hit our rhythm we were there in no time. The first half mile also passed by a bunch of boulder problems, which were populated with climbers. We arrived around noon and began to look for a site. We skipped the southern sites as the ranger said they were a bit more exposed. The ranger had also recommended Upper Chinquapin, the first site after passing the water source and historic ranger station. The water source was an underwhelming spigot that varied from a few drops to a small trickle throughout the day. The historic ranger station was a pair of old cabins, one of which hosted the site map on its door, where campers marked their stay and date of departure. Upper Chinquapin happened to be open, so we dropped our packs there. We were close to the water and shielded from the trail by a huge granite boulder. Dave and I hiked up the trail a little further to scout out other sites. Lower Chinquapin looked prime as it was a ways off the trail and had a view of the Round Valley meadow. Most of the other sites around there were taken, so we decided to stick with our choice. We had lunch (sandwiches) and set up camp.

We trekked down to the water to fill up and explore the meadow a bit. At some point while filling water we met a group of Boy Scouts from the Redondo Beach troop. They were using UV to sterilize their water, which I hadn’t seen before. The leader said they were training for a 12 day long-term in New Mexico.

We did a little exploratory hike in the afternoon to some of the more remote sites. We really liked Quail and Raven, which were spacious and felt a little more remote. We went all the way up to Tamarack Valley (the other campground), crossed the creek there (dry, just like the one feeding Round Valley meadow) and checked out Irvine before heading back. Dave’s knees were starting to give him trouble on a bit of downhill, which made him worried about the peak hike the next day.

Dave found a secret second campsite behind ours which wasn’t marked on the map called Lower Chinquapin (despite there being another site with that name). It had a really cool stone table set up with two log benches – a perfect dining table! Dinner was 4 different REI freeze-dried meals - chicken fried rice, pepper beef, chana masala and shakshuka. They were all pretty good. Chana masala was the clear winner, but shakshuka was a surprisingly good underdog. Dave had a few bites, but mostly ate some of his massive bag of nuts. He brought instant ramen but accidentally grabbed the insanely spicy one – generally not advisable for a trip far from bathrooms.

We didn’t do much after dinner. Fires were not allowed in the State Park (despite Dave’s copious moaning and groaning), so we passed out pretty much as soon as it got dark. We spent a little while looking for stars, but I had already taken out my contacts so it was a bit futile.

Day 2

I was up around 5:30 am the next morning – the first night is always brutal.

For breakfast we had coffee, instant oatmeal and mandarins. Dave had decided not to do the peak out of concern for his knees. The rest of us got on the trail at around 8 am.

Wellman Divide (3)

The first mile was about the same as the previous day’s hike. It was a tough start, with a persistent grade. But we were rewarded with stunning views at Wellman Divide. You could clearly see the two Tahquitz peaks to the South, and the bowl-shaped valley in between.

Second Leg (4-6)

The next few miles took us through a couple different distinct areas. First, there was an open slope on the Eastern side of Jean Peak (4). It was dotted with pines and granite boulders, but mostly dominated by short scrub (I later found out this plant is called Chinquapin, the namesake of our campsite). We lovingly dubbed this area “scrub-hub”.

One really cool thing about this section was that we could see both the tram station and Round Valley meadow to the East. And behind them, over the rim of the basin, you could see Palm Springs and the other cities in the valley below.

Next was a flat shelf area between Jean Peak and San Jacinto Peak (5). Back to lots of pines and granite here. We took a few minutes for a rest, a snack, and a pee break. Then we pressed on to another section of sloped scrubland, this time on the eastern side of San Jacinto itself (6). We made one cut Northwards, then a single switchback and a climb back South. There was also a large, remarkably flat slab of granite in the shade which made a nice cool place to lie down. It wasn’t exactly hot, but it also wasn’t all that cold. Probably in the 70s. This was one of the harder parts of the hike, but we made it through. I’m convinced my Nalgene of Tang is the only thing that kept Dani alive and kicking. You can see Jean Peak in the background of this one.

San Jacinto Peak (7)

After a long while, we made it to the last stretch, a 0.3 mile trail that forks off to the north. On the way, we signed a guestbook in the survival cabin.

After a few hundred feet of trail-less scramble over huge granite boulders, we finally reached the top! 3.5 miles and 1700 ft of elevation in just under 3 hours. Phew!

We hung out at the peak for about 20 minutes. There were quite a few people up there taking photos. I think it’s a popular day-hike destination from the top of the tram. Then we started heading back down.

Back Down

We made it back to camp in about 2 hours, just in time for lunch. A big salami and crackers. We had drained most of our trail mix and snacks on the way up, so we were pretty hungry. We headed out and made it down to the tram by 4:30 or so.

The grand finale was going up those concrete ramps with our packs in the hot sun. That was a real workout. And then we were back down the tram to over 100 F heat and the car. In all we did about 12 miles and 2300 ft elevation in two days.