The beginning of the trip was a bit stressful. We decided to do a bit of a later start on Saturday as we were only planning to do the first 2.5 miles to Round Valley to set up camp. I had done plenty of research on the trail itself – but the tram? Not so much. We got there and it was absolutely packed and the wait time was 2 hours. Not ideal – but fine no problem. The biggest problem was the man selling the tickets. He told us that all camping permits were sold out and there was no camping – despite us confirming with the ranger an hour prior to this interaction. He was rather rude throughout the whole thing, and I get he was having a stressful day, but he approached it as if we were already yelling at him even though we were being nice about the whole thing. Long story short – we finally got in contact with the rangers who again confirmed plenty of availability, we got our permits no issue, and the man at the desk was forced to take down his no camping sign.

We ended up getting into round valley around 3, got an amazing site and spent the night under the stars thousands of feet above the heat of Palm Springs. And it was chilly so definitely bring base layers. Also the rangers told us there was a bear spotted in the area that day so I was happy to have my bear canister even though I was told previously they weren’t required.

We ended up waking up at 3:30 and setting out at 4 to summit for the sunrise. I had never hiked in the dark before so it was a bit spooky down in the woods. Very Blair witch with the headlamps. I had to keep telling myself not to look into the trees LOL. But as the sun started to poke out it was absolutely magical. And once we made it to the summit, it literally took my breath away. If you are able, I think this is the way to do it. We had the peak to ourselves for hours and were able to enjoy coffee at above 10,000 ft as the sun rose.

also I didn’t hear much about this, but for me the sidewalk back up to the tram was the worse part LOL. Why did nobody tell me they are fairly legit switchbacks?