Get Outside and Explore
I hope you enjoy this guide to hiking the Art Smith Trail in Palm Desert, California. The Art Smith Trail is about 16 miles long, and takes you into the Santa Rosa Mountains Wilderness, high above Palm Desert. It's rated as moderate, and is a class 1 hiking trail. The trail is a relatively narrow single track popular with hikers, mountain bikers, and equestrians.
Follow along on my hike to Ontario Peak. You begin the hike at Icehouse Canyon trailhead, just off Mt Baldy Road. This trailhead is the gateway for several other hikes: The Three T’s Hike, Cucamonga Peak, and Icehouse Saddle. There is a small parking lot which begins to fill up by 6am. Hope this Hiking Guide helps you plan your visit to Icehouse Canyon and Ontario Peak.
On a cool fall day I set out to hike to two peaks, in one day: Thunder Mountain, and Telegraph Peak. The Three T’s is a popular hike in the Angeles National Forest, near Mount Baldy. I would be hiking up Mount Baldy Rd. from Manker Flats, passing “the Notch,” and heading on to Thunder Mountain, before coming to the sign for the Three T’s Hike, in the Cucamonga Wilderness.
This guide details hiking over Mount Whitney from the High Sierra Trail, and what to expect. We completed the trail in July 2022, and this is our story. We would wake up at 3:30am on Day 7 of our journey on the High Sierra Trail. I did not take any photos in the pitch black darkness that morning, but had fortunately photographed our site the night before. We had camped on this mesa, that was just before Guitar Lake. We decided we would take our time as we hiked on up the switchbacks, in order to acclimate to the altitude gradually. Neither of us had hiked to 14,505 feet before, let alone with heavy backpacks. I had been to 12,000 feet before once, to Trail Camp, just below the 99 switchbacks, on the opposite side. There were so many unknowns.
This cover Day 4 of the High Sierra Trail from Big Arroyo to Kern River Hot Springs, Day 5 from Kern RIver Hot Springs to Junction Meadows, and on to Guitar Lake. Check out my HST planning guides, for hiking the High SIerra Trail from Crescent Meadow to Mount Whitney, over 80 miles.
Serafina Hikes 