So for my next adventure I headed up to the town of Idyllwild in the San Jacinto mountains to spend a few days exploring in the San Jacinto wilderness. I started this trip from the Humber park trailhead and hiked up the Devils Slide trail to Saddle junction. A 5 way trail junction. From the junction I hiked down the Caramba trail passed Reeds meadow to Laws camp where I took a quick lunch break before heading the last few miles down to the Caramba overlook. Caramba is a really remote area in the San Jacinto mountains and it sees very few visitors. And with the great views and the nearby waterfall I knew right away that this was my kind of place! So I got my camp setup and filled some water from Tahquitz creek and then headed down to "Impassable falls". The name of the falls is misleading as they are easily passable, but it is quite a beautiful waterfall with nice granite cliffs surrounding it and a nice deep pool at the bottom which provided for some fun swimming and cliff jumping! After having fun at the falls I headed back up to camp and made some dinner and headed into my tent for the night.
Views from the Devils Slide trail Suicide rock on the left and Marion mountain in the right
Views from the Devils Slide trail Tahquitz rock on the left and Suicide rock on the right
Tahquitz peak from the Devils Slide trail
Saddle junction
Reeds meadow
Laws camp
Wildflowers by Willow creek
Wildflowers on the Caramba trail
Camping at the Caramba overlook
Tahquitz creek
The top of Impassable falls
Impassable falls
The next day was the big adventure day so I got going early. My plan was to leave my camp setup at Caramba and do a big loop all around Tahquitz valley and up to Tahquitz and Red Tahquitz peaks. So I headed back up the Caramba trail to Laws camp and then took the Willow creek trail from there to Skunk Cabbage meadows. From there I went through Tahquitz meadow and Little Tahquitz meadow and then up to the trail junction with the PCT (Pacific Crest Trail) near Tahquitz springs. I followed the PCT up to Chinquapin flats and then took the Tahquitz peak trail up to the fire lookout on the summit. The Tahquitz peak fire lookout is the only fire lookout tower within a designated wilderness area and all the volunteers that work there have to make the hike up there. After hanging out on the summit for a bit I headed back down to Chinquapin flats and then followed the PCT towards my next summit, Red Tahquitz. I filled my water at Tahquitz springs and then made the final climb up to the summit. I don't know what it is about Red Tahquitz but it is one of my favorite peaks. Definitley my favorite peak in the San Jacinto wilderness. The views are really awesome, and compared to the dozens of people that climb to the Fire lookout on Tahquitz peak every week hardly anyone ever visits the summit of it's brother Red Tahquitz. After a nice long break on the summit I headed down the northeast ridge. I crossed the PCT and continued cross country down the ridge through some really neat areas with cool rock formations. I followed the ridge all the way down to my last summit of the day Sam Fink peak. I made the short climb up to the peak and then headed down its northern slopes back to my camp at Caramba. After all that I still got back to camp with enough time to explore down Tahquitz creek a bit and do some more swimming and cliff jumping at Impassable falls before calling it a day. It was definitely a full day of adventures!
Morning clouds in the trees on the Willow creek trail
Skunk Cabbage meadows
Skunk Cabbage meadows
A deer on the trail
Tahquitz meadow
Tahquitz meadow
Little Tahquitz meadow
On the PCT
Views from the Tahquitz peak trail
Views from the Tahquitz peak trail
The fire lookout tower on Tahquitz peak
Overlooking Garner valley from Red Tahquitz peak
Overlooking Palm Springs from Red Tahquitz peak
Overlooking the Desert Divide from Red Tahquitz peak
Rock formations on Red Tahquitz's northeast ridge
Overlooking Tahquitz valley from the northeast ridge
Overlooking Andreas canyon from the northeast ridge
Looking back at Red Tahquitz
Sam Fink peak
Views of Antsell Rock from Sam Fink peak
Exploring Tahquitz creek
Exploring Tahquitz creek
Back at Impassable falls
Impassable falls
The next day I packed up my camp and headed back up the Caramba trail, back up and over Saddle junction and back down the Devils Slide trail to Humber park in Idyllwild. Ending another great adventure where I got to have so much fun exploring some of my favorite mountain areas in Southern California. I can't wait to visit Caramba again!
Caramba overlook
Wildflowers by Tahquitz creek
Deer on the Caramba trail
More Deer!
Springs on the Devils Slide trail
Looking back up at Tahquitz peak from Humber park
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Trying not to be envious... Must have been AWESOME!!
lol. I can't lie... it was SUPER AWESOME!!
it's beautiful place i want to go there now :)
The San Jacinto mountains are a really beautiful place! I would highly recommend going there if you can. If you have any questions about the area feel free to ask me. I've hiked up there a bunch.
Woweeee!! How the hell am I supposed to pick a favourite photo, there are so many great ones!! Those yellow flowers are precious...and very photogenic hey? haha same with the deer. They're not very afraid of humans are they?
This one brings me a real sense of calm and happiness...what surreal beauty. Your shots of the water were all fabulous too. I bet you felt like a million bucks out there!!
Thank you @lyndsaybowes!! It is hard to pick a favorite, there was so much cool stuff on this hike. Granite cliffs, waterfalls, big trees, wildflowers, grassy meadows, wildlife, epic views. The wildflowers did make for some great photos, I really like the last shot of the wildflowers by Tahquitz creek. And the deer did seem extra chill on this hike. Usually they'd go running off, but they were just chillin' letting me take photos of 'em! All in all I don't think this trip could have been any better, I really like this area. I'd say I felt like at least 2 million bucks out there!!
Impassable Falls looks so beautiful and peaceful. <3 Beautiful pictures, thanks for sharing :)
Thank you! Impassable falls is definitely a gem.
Looks like I have another place to put on the bucket list. In high school we spent many a days up in Idyllwild playing in the snow. Broke my hand and dislocated a finger there. Special place. My wife loves the Chinese restaurant there for their soup.
How far of a hike is it fro the parking area? The granite outcroppings and those meadows are amazing. A side note, there is corundum up in those mountains, but I've never found any....yet.
Thanks for taking us there where so few have gone.
Idyllwild is my favorite mountain town in SoCal. Big Bear, Wrightwood, Mt. Baldy, etc... all those places are nice, but I really like Idyllwild. The hike from Humber park to Caramba is 6.7 miles according to the map. If you didn't want to go so far Tahquitz valley or Tahquitz peak are epic destinations with less hiking. Corundum looks like some neat stuff (I had to look it up lol). And you say that it's found in the San Jacinto mountains? Thats very interesting. Thank you my friend!
Corundum, red = ruby, blue and all other colors = sapphire. Yes, San Jacinto and San Bernardino. The San Bernardino location is easy to get to. It's just off Baldy Rd. There was a land slide that dropped boulders of the material. The veins are a hike up the mountain and contain corundum and lapis. Never hiked up to the veins though.
Very cool! I'd love to check out that spot on Baldy rd. Is it at the big landslide that made the Hog Back or a different one?
I was just there over the weekend! Such an amazing place that not many visit!
Awesome! Where exactly did you go? Did you get all the way out to Caramba?
Wow it looks very lovely!! Beautiful pics...
Thank you! The San Jacinto wilderness is a lovely place.
Beautiful place!
It really is. I love it up there!
Amazing pics... the waterfalls are my favorite but that shot looking over Garner valley is bad ass
Thanks! I think that shot is actually my favorite shot from this trip. I love that red and white point just SW from the summit. In a previous trip years ago to Red Tahquitz peak I actually chilled out on that red and white point totally naked and drank a beer and got stoned!(I thought you might like that) The only reason I was naked was because I had actually brought 2 beers, but one of them got punctured on the way and it had soaked my back with beer. So being fairly confident that no one was around I hung my clothes to dry on that little bush on the left of the point and proceeded to chill. lol!
Definitely a great view for a blunt