On National Trails Day, a group of us visited Cucamonga Peak. We originally planned for a 6am meetup, but after talking with someone who hiked it recently and warned us about the parking lot filling by 6am, we revised our meetup time to 5:30. We arrived by 5:20 and got the last parking spot! Lucky us! There were several large groups gathering for a hike that day. After we got our things together and did our introductions, we got going by 6am. The weather was comfortable — low 60's. We met up with the faster hikers in our group at the Icehouse Saddle Junction around 8:30, then made it to the summit just after 10am. There were still several groups at the top when we arrived but slowly the crowds dissipated. I don't know what the weather was at the top but it was still quite comfortable. We saw several yellow swallowtail butterflies fluttering about while we enjoyed an early lunch before heading back. On the way down, as one of the hikers let us pass at a switchback, he pointed out to us that there was a halo around the sun. What a cool sight to see! I also spotted another California red snow plant. It got pretty warm later in the day and I was surprised to still see people heading up the trail at the later hour. When the trail drew near the stream, we stopped by to wet our bandanas to cool off. It was so refreshing! As we neared the end of the trail, maybe the last mile of the hike, we passed a shrub that was speckled with lady bugs. We got back to the parking lot by 3pm. Even though there were so many people on the trails that day, we did not see trash on the trails. Thank you, hikers!
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Responses
I forgot to mention that as you get closer to the summit, we noticed several shortcuts. Those that were not following AllTrails route mistakenly took some of the more challenging shortcuts.