Idyllwild & Mt San Jacinto Hiking
When planning our hike, we looked for a campground close to the Marion Mountain trailhead as a way up to Mt San Jacinto, and found Stone Creek Campground outside of Idyllwild. It looked to be pretty close and we didn't want to lose a chance at the remaining site so we took it.
We arrived in good time and got set up on a nice site with sun and shade.
As sometimes happens, when we scoped out the actual trailhead, it was 1-1/2 miles further up a small road past Fern Basin campground. Not only that, there's a small Marion Mountain campground there. The state parks and local parks don't share information betweeen their websites, and you have to look in other ways to find such little places.
The prospect of us both toting our heavy packs up the winding steep road wasn't very appealing, but since Jackie can walk much faster than I, she volunteered to walk back up from the Stone Creek campsite after we drove up to drop off me and the 2 packs. It was a long slog for her before we even got started the next morning (Saturday) under sunny skies.
The numbered yellow dots show where we camped during our hike.
The Marion Mountain trail is a tough one, rising 4,600 feet in only 5.7 miles of switchbacks. Almost all of it is under the tree canopy, with occasional glimpses of horizons. All this to say that even though the trees and setting were very nice, there weren't a lot of vista photo ops.
After several hours of slow uphill progress, we reach Little Round Valley, our confirmed campsite area for the night.
Along the way, someone had called it quits and just camped right there next to the trail, in a cute sort of enclave.
Site names like campsite 5 - Cooper's Nest and site 6 -Junco Flats, are appealing, but we settle in at Thunder View, site 4. It's pretty good, good enough that
Andy King put up a 2 min. Youtube video of the walk in to it.
Continuing upward the next morning, the next stop is the top of Mt. San Jacinto, with some good views along the way. Near the summit, a well constructed shelter sits.
Now, with the sun shining, it's off to Round Valley and another wilderness campsite.
