On our first trip to the San Gabriel Mountains of Southern California, DB and I decided to hike up Mount Baldy. The well-beaten trail from Manker Flat cruised on up to the bald view. For a mountain that's barely 10,000 feet above sea level, Mount Baldy feels like a huge and very high mountain.
After five minutes of sharing the summit with a hundred others, we dropped down a bit and then hiked up to the summit of West Baldy. That summit, we enjoyed alone.
Climbing back up and over Mount Baldy, we dropped down toward the Devil's Backbone, with a quick detour to hike up Mount Harwood, then continued down the aesthetic trail toward the car.
The San Gabriels is a fine range of high mountains, thick forests and awesome scenery. Not only that, but a wonderful trail system spiderwebs through seemingly the best of it!
*Photos courtesy of Rick Kent
Mount Baldy, West Baldy & Mount Harwood (San Gabriels)
