{"id":5444,"date":"2021-04-11T22:59:25","date_gmt":"2021-04-11T14:59:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.huangyizhou.com\/?p=5444"},"modified":"2021-08-28T13:10:19","modified_gmt":"2021-08-28T05:10:19","slug":"20210411suicide-rock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.huangyizhou.com\/index.php\/2021\/04\/11\/20210411suicide-rock\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 2 of 2021 South California Trip: Suicide Rock in San Jacinto Mountains"},"content":{"rendered":"

Second day of my April 2021 southern California trip. I would be hiking Suicide Rock trail in San Jacinto Mountains.<\/p>\n

\"Tahquitz<\/a>

<\/br>Tahquitz Peak<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Sunday, April 11. Learning from my experience the previous day that Joshua Tree National Park could get pretty busy on a spring weekend, I decided to try a different type of hiking today, in the nearby San Jacinto Mountains, a more familiar landscape to me than Joshua Tree desert.
\nWhile it would be exciting to summit Mt San Jacinto, Palm Springs Aerial Tramway only reopened with limited capacity and was sold out before I searched, without which it would take 22km of hiking to summit Mt San Jacinto, too much to me with portions close to summit still covered in ice.
\nTahquitz Peak via Devils Slide seemed like a perfect fit for me. Unfortunately, I had been paying attention to mountain reports<\/a>, which mentioned snow and ice was still present on the trail to Tahquitz Peak in early April, and out of abundance of caution I picked the nearby “Suicide Rock” trail, which was shorter, easier and snow-free.<\/p>\n

From my overnight lodge in Desert Hot Springs, I chose to take I10 first, and entered San Jacinto Mountains from the town of Banning. There were a few roadside turnouts with decent views, offering me reprieve from slow traffic ahead. Otherwise, the twisty mountain road was fun to drive.<\/p>\n

\"Overlooking<\/a>

<\/br>Overlooking Valley between San Gorgonio and San Jacinto Mountains<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Valley\"<\/a>

<\/br>Valley<\/p><\/div>\n

\"San<\/a>

 \"San<\/a><\/br>San Jacinto Valley<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Tahquitz<\/a>

<\/br>Tahquitz Peak<\/br><\/p>\n

If not for the snow on top of it making a treacherous approach, I would had climbed this instead of Suicide Rocks.<\/div>\n

<\/p><\/div>\n

\"San<\/a>

<\/br>San Jacinto Mountains<\/p><\/div>\n

Suicide Rock Trail<\/span><\/h3>\n

It’s said that the granite outcrop got such a name from the story<\/a> of Indian lovers that were denied marriage jumping to their deaths at the spot, which turned out to be more unsubstantiated legends to boost tourism. Suicide Rock offered great views of Tahquitz Peak across the valley (and vice versa).
\nAs for the trail itself, it’s a 10.8km easy-to-moderate out-and-back with 569m of gentle elevation gain. One had to drive down the road to San Jacinto Ranger Station, located along Pine Crest Avenue, to obtain a free wilderness permit before setting on the trail though. The permit was offered at a desk outside the ranger station, so there was no need to worry about its office hours.<\/p>\n

Another thing to note about the trail was parking. The official Deer Springs Trailhead only held about 10 cars, which was grossly insufficient on a weekend like this. There seemed to be some unofficial overflow parking towards the west of the trailhead, where I parked my car and started the hike just past noon.
\nHere’s GPS tracking:
\n