Best Trails in Mount San Jacinto State Park

I hiked this trail with my friend on 2.6.20. It was ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL! We started at 11am, reached the summit at 2:55pm, & finished at 5:15pm. We hiked at a very good pace & stopped for about a 15 minute lunch break. We wore microspikes the entire time.. there were a few spots that we “fell” through the snow, ankle deep. Very enjoyable, beautiful, & scenic hike! Highly recommended for experienced hikers

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Hi, I’ve been watching you for a long time. I train using this method. https://soo.gd/salles

We started around 10:30 from tramway at a fast but steady pace, and reached summit around 3:30 (even thou the ranger told us to turn back at 2:30) The trails were icy at first and then had packed snow most of the way up. FYI Make sure to watch out for holes in the snow, I got my foot stuck in a couple of them! Altogether we managed to do the hike without crampons just fine, even thou most people were wearing them. I highly suggest this hike! The views are beautiful! Just make sure to take at 3L of water and a extra jacket. It got pretty cold towards sundown!

Such a great trail - unreal views for the second half and at the top, lots of solitude on a Wednesday midday. End of February and I absolutely needed micro spikes - most of the trail was snow and ice covered. Was also happy to have had my poles! Post-holed a few times as it had been warm and snow was melting. Not crazy hard, but better to start early!

If you like step, rocky trails with great views, this is it! Loved it!

Left at 7am, made it to the tram at 4pm. Incredible workout, I think I underestimated how steep it would be and how much snow I’d have to deal with. I would say that I definitely do not recommend doing this hike without micro spikes. I brought pokes and didn’t use them, but the spikes were mandatory on the slick areas with lots of exposure. Overall, amazing hike, can’t wait to come back and go all the way to the summit!

I’m dying right now. We did this as cactus to clouds we just stopped for an hour to eat lunch and rest. Do not follow our route it was brutal in the snow especially with no snow shoes... on the way down we followed the longer more compacted route. This was a great hike and beautiful views. 2/23/2020

2/22/20 - a lot of snow. Bring crampons

Hiked the Deer Springs trail on 23 Feb 2020. Snowed/rained the night prior which caused some difficulty finding the trail at certain points. Was able to get up with just microspikes but had snowshoes just in case. Only the first person up in the morning told me they wore snowshoes. Later there was enough hard packed snow for everyone else. Only needed the spikes toward the last 2 miles of the trail and they were more of a nice to have vs needed. I did post hole a couple times on the way down because I wasn’t paying attention to the trail. This was mainly between the Marion mountain trail intersection and the summit. Started at 0640 and had a ton of breaks due to the difficultly/being out of shape. Made it to the summit around 1400 and departed at 1500 which was a little too late for sunset. Didn’t stop much on the way down and still had to hike in the dark for a little. Snow was melted off the trail below 8000 feet or so. Had 3 liters of water but wish I had 4-5 min. Luckily I had a stove to boil some more. Hope this helps.

This was a kick in the ass. I did this in conjunction to cactus to clouds we just stopped at the tram station for lunch for an hour and let our feet air out. It was quite the hike we were expecting to do 40 mins a mile and we were keeping up with that until flat rock... Jesus Christ it gets steep. Just be prepared for the last couple of miles to kick you in the ass. There was a little bit of snow before the tram around 7500 feet and I was glad we weren’t the first people doing it. It was 2/23/2020 when we did this and started at 3am. I want you to know I am not an expert hiker by any means, this is doable but extreme and not for the faint of heart.

The 291 feet of elevation is only the first part until you get to the paved driveway. After crossing the pavement you will continue climbing another several hundred feet of elevation. You will be scrambling up rocks a lot, it’s not just a path that you walk along. Def more difficult than we had expected. It is a fun climb and the views are terrific but for many this will be on the harder side of moderate.

Did the trail up to the tram today. It took just about six hours with few stops. I carried 4 L of water but used 2 1/2L. I wore a long sleeve T-shirt and shorts the whole time but had plenty of other layers in my pack that I could’ve called on if it got colder or if there were a disaster. This was my first time on the trail and I did go alone. I had the all trails GPS app with me which gave me great confidence but I never used it for guidance because the trail was easy to find. I would say the trail is about as easy to identify as any desert mountain trail anywhere. Occasionally you’ll lose it but 10 feet later it reappears. There are many little branches off the trail but they always come right back to it. This annoyed me at first but I quit worrying about it about halfway through I didn’t really care if I was on the main trail or a small branch since I knew from the map they never went anywhere. The last 1500 feet or so were definitely very snowy with hard pack. But again the trail was easy to find and there were footholds from all the people in front of me since the snow is old. I had micro spikes which was a must in my mind. You could also manage with yak tracks. I did see the footprints of some running shoes or hiking boots and they were sliding occasionally up 2 feet before gaining purchase which looked scary. I definitely noticed the thinning air at around 7 miles in. I’m surprised how much that affected me. My heart rate really increased and my speed slowed down but it was still manageable. The first 2 miles in the last 2 miles were definitely the hardest/steepest. The middle section felt a little flatter which was very nice even though it was steadily going up but not as crazy as the first or last two miles.

Hi, I’ll be in P.S, from feb26-mar11 and looking for a partner to do this hike with. gaffneys76@yahoo.ca if your interested. Thanks