Moonlit Skyline Hike to Mount San Jacinto State Park

Last night, at around 11:55pm, I began Mount San Jacinto's infamous Skyline Hike with Udi. This is about 10.5 miles and 8,000 feet of elevation gain. It is "infamous" because people are rescued here on almost a weekly basis, and also people die here sometimes. This hike was very hard, but really really really amazing, serene and fun. It was a beautiful night and the entire landscape was moon-washed so brightly that you hardly needed a headlamp. When I was out here about a year ago, Chris and I took the tram up to Mount San Jacinto State Park, and I remember thinking to myself, "I really want to climb up here", but I didn't know if that was a thing that people did and never thought I actually would. Well, it turns out that people do it, including me!

Coachella Valley. We started all the way down there!!

The moon! I know it looks like the sun.

This is the halfway marker that some hikers created. And a tarantula! He was scared of us and didn't move an inch. I was brave enough to put my foot near him for size comparison. I couldn't remember if tarantulas are dangerous, but I don't think they are.

These are both pictures of the moon and the light at the tram station. I think the right photograph qualifies as a "moonset" photo, which apparently is an actual word because my spellcheck is not correcting me. We were heading towards that little light on the right side of the photos.

Pre-sunrise sky.

I know it may not look it, but I was seriously really very tired here.

                                 Snowcapped San Gorgonio.

There's still some snow up there. Me and Udi in front of...I can't remember the name of the damn rock.

Those rows of white down on the ground in the right photograph are wind turbines.

We made it! We couldn't get into the tram station at first and we were knocking and whistling and trying to get someone's attention so we could get inside (it was about 40 degrees and windy up there and we just wanted to be warm and also not miss the tram).

So, we got in eventually. Here we are at the tram station, before riding down. And on the tram, on the way down.

Looking back up towards the top. And there's a tram on its way up. It was FULL of people because it's spring break. Udi, the tram operator, and I were the only people on our tram because we took the first tram of the day down. 

This is essentially what we did, but we stopped where it says Tram Station. There was the option to continue up to the summit but I seriously had had enough. I will definitely do the whole thing someday (hopefully soon)!