Our group actually headed out at 5:30 a.m. to reach Mission Peak early and hopefully beat crowds on a Saturday, but by the time we got there at 6:30 a.m. (when the trail officially opened), it was a complete zoo!  The lot was full and people had taken most of the parking in the neighboring community and we had a line of cars behind us trying to find parking.  We immediately decided this wasn’t the hike for us.  Since we’d already driven for an hour, we figured another 45 minutes to get to Mt. Umunhum was our next best choice.

None of us had ever been to Mt. Umunhum before and had no idea what to expect, but were already invested in doing a hike so we’re game for just about anything.  We drove to the Sierra Azul trail head, and we were the second car there at 7:30 a.m.! This was a great start.

It’s a bit of a drive to get there and you feel like you’re driving all the way to the top.  The road can be quite narrow and many bicyclists use the road, but if take your time and are cautious, it’s much less worse than trying to drive to Stinson Beach in Marin on a weekend day.

The trail is really nice.  It’s sheltered by trees and the ground is almost swept clean. Someone is taking really good care of this place.  There aren’t logs to jump over water obstacles, instead they have bridges and there’s even a really nice staircase at the very end heading towards the tower/observation point.

We ended up logging 8 miles and I’d rate it as moderate in difficulty.  It’s not technical, but it’s a constant uphill climb from the parking lot that will work out your glutes.  The hike back is a quick and easy downhill grade.  The hardest part of this hike is just driving to the trailhead.  I would recommend some gloves and a few layers if you’re out there in the early morning or if there’s wind.  By the time we headed down, at about 8:30 a.m., there was a constant flow of people headed up on the trail.

If I lived closer, I could see enjoying this hike over and over.