We originally planned to do this hike via Marion Mountain trail, but being that we had already completed 3/6 in a span of two weekends, and we decided to give ourselves a well deserved ‘break’ and take the tram up to the San Jacinto Wilderness. We weren’t going to do this hike until mid-September, then we saw that the tram was going to be closed for maintenance until October.

We had reached an empass: stick to the original plan of summiting via Marion Mountain trail mid-September (longer, more challenging), or try to squeeze it in during an already busy weekend.

I want to document here that it was my wife’s idea to drive up to Palm Springs at 5 in the morning to catch the first tram up at 8am to make it back in 5 hours. Note: our previous hike to San Jacinto peak from the tram took almost 8 hours (back in our novice hiking days of over packing and unconditioned).

This time around we only packed the 10 Essentials, and no extras because we were 10 times more confident on what we needed and where we were going.

With minimal breaks (aside from a few moments to enjoy the breeze and photo opts with some deer) we made our way passed the Round Valley camp (no water source today but we packed enough to get us by), and up to Wellman’s Divide. We enjoyed the views, rested our legs, had a quick snack and continued along the trail to San Jacinto.

For a Saturday, there weren’t many people at the top. We were able to get a quick photo with the sign and enjoyed lunch relatively in solitude, minus a few couples here and there.

For the record: total time was 4:54:22