This was my first time doing any hike in this area. But I had to shorten my original plan, I had a phone interview scheduled in the early afternoon and wouldn't be able to finish Mt Wilson in time.

I was the only one in the parking lot when I arrived, and I didn't see anyone for 3/4 of the trip. 3 delightful hours out of 4 where I didn't see a single human…bliss. The trail is wide and seems more like a road than a trail, but it is beautiful and tree covered. Which made it hard to see the sunrise but still lovely. It's a gentle climb and after about a mile it opened out into a meadow. I saw a trail off to the right and thought, must be Mt Pinos already. It was not, lol. But a lovely little spot to see the world and only added about .4mi to the trip. Best part of that split off, I spotted a bee sleeping in a wildflower on the side of the trail. Never seen it in real life before, the cutest thing.

Back up the gentle climb through the wildflower rich meadows, birds, bugs and bunnies everywhere. I saw the split for the actually Mt Pinos peak and spent a moment taking pics there before continuing on. Once you pass the condor viewing area, the path changes dramatically. It becomes single track and starts heading down. First with some lazy switchbacks, then suddenly as if the trail-maker got tired of the switchbacks it just heads straight down. It flattens out for a moment then heads up. Still angry at switchbacks the trail maker sends you up a steeper climb to eventually reach Sawmill Mtn.

I had a little breakfast, took my summit pics and headed back down. I saw two juvenile coyotes hunting birds in the bushes. I startled them, and the birds, off pretty quickly but it was still delightful to see. In the last hour down I ran into no less than 10 groups/pairs of people. But I was certainly glad I was on the way down bc it was heating up.

Overall I really enjoyed this trail and will definitely head back here again. Next time pack my paddle board for some recreation time at Pyramid Lake on the drive back.