Mt Baldy and Oops, Mt Harwood Too

I wasn’t as excited about Baldy because I thought it was going to be extremely crowded, but it wasn’t! In fact, my friend Karen and I only saw a few people on the way up, and we had the Devil’s Backbone to ourselves. But let me backtrack – it was a Monday, so that helped. I didn’t like the first two miles, even though we saw some pretty wildflowers, including the giant blazingstar. SO gorgeous. I just don’t love hiking on fire roads. I get that I’m spoiled, living in the mountains, but I just wished that part would hurry and end. The rest of the hike was great though. I loved walking through the ski resort and seeing all of the trails. It was like a ghost town, which fueled my imagination, like I was hurrying to get to higher ground during an apocalypse. Yeah idk. Following the ski resort, there was a very steep part, but it was fun to challenge myself not to rest going up. The views were incredible. Then the Devil’s Backbone – one of my favorite memories of the year. It just looks and feels so cool to walk along this narrow path, like walking in the sky. Reminds me of a Sigur Ros music video. It wasn’t scary, even though it probably could be for those who are afraid of heights or falling. But I didn’t feel like it was too treacherous.

We ended up detouring onto Register Ridge for a bit, which took us up to Mt. Harwood. I felt like I was on Mars, especially with the red dirt and the satellite (?) equipment up there, like little UFOs. But this did add some serious legwork haha. From there, the last bit to the actual Baldy summit we were looking for was demanding. But I just love pushing myself on these relentless sections. Once I reached the summit, I ran around like an excited little banshee (?). The views exceeded my expectations. It was crazy because there were several fires that had started that day, so as we sadly watched some of the world burn from way up there, at least the smoke didn’t reach us. We took the ski hut route down, which I felt went on forever. It was pretty exposed. But gorgeous greenery all the way down. I saw a neon blue lizard at the hut. And plane wreckage along the way. For one of the shorter hikes (but not short by any means), it felt pretty long. I’m going to blame it on the hot sun. Anyway, I did find a registry to sign, but it was all the way near the end of the trail, coming off of the Baldy Bowl trail? I really don’t even know where I was, but I signed it. Not easy to find. It was like a scavenger hunt looking for it. Also, San Antonio Falls was pretty.

Well, that was Baldy!

10,064 feet / 12.5 miles / 4,000+ ft elev gain with my detours