In reading a lot of the logs for San Jacinto I noticed that a lot of hikers use the Marion Mountain route. There is a better way!

Hiking to the summit of San Jacinto out of Humber Park is my favorite route, and one of my all-time favorite hikes. It is a little bit longer, but it is less of a slug, and I think the trail and the views make it worth the extra mileage. On weekends there is a quota for the Devil’s Slide Trailhead so be mindful to get that in advance. We showed up at the ranger station in Idyllwild on Saturday and had no issues with getting a permit for Sunday.

We got to the trailhead around 6:30 and didn’t have any issues finding parking. There was a ranger checking permits where he told us the weekend quota system is to allow a more wilderness experience for hikers. This was our experience, as I believe there was between 5-9 other hikers that summited from this route.

The weather was overcast most of the day which led to a much cooler hike. We did experience some sporadic rain, but it never lasted long enough to make the hike difficult or unpleasant. On the way up we took a small detour to bag Miller peak, which worked out perfectly as by the time we reached San Jacinto Summit we had it basically to ourselves.

Almost all the other hikers we spoke to had come up Marion Mountain, and it wasn’t until we started hiking down that we started to encounter a handful of people coming up via the tram. Not sure if the weather deterred some people, but one of the more popular mountains was relatively quite for a weekend day.

Mosquitos were bad at the trailhead and again at the summit but not even noticeable while hiking. The Wellman Cienega is still flowing strong so there is a good water source on the route.