Pacific Crest Trail – for short PCT – is one of the greatest hiking trails in the world, and we did not know anything about it before 2015 January. This trail is not shown on local Coachella Valley hiking maps distributed in Palm Springs even though PCT goes through Palm Springs area.
Certainly the most important reason for putting this 2 650 miles long on public knowledge is Sheryl Strayed’s book “Wild” and the film with the same name, produced and acted by Reese Whitherspoon. After I and my wife so the film on 18th January 2015 I started to find information about thir trail from its beginning at US-Mexican border about 150 miles from Palm Springs and through Palm Springs to the starting point of Sheryl Strayed’s starting point about 200 miles north from Palm Springs in Mojave Town.
You can actually very easily find excact route at the trail maintaining Pacific Crest Trail Association pages. I soon realized we had already the previous winter been on routes connecting to PCT when we went up to San Jacinto using the Aireal Tram. Soon the trail path was clear also on lower altitudes and we took our first “real” hike at 20th January 2015. Our first trip was five miles which Sheryl Strayed had on her first hiking day soon reaching 30 miles per day. This first trip was only fifteen minutes away from Palm Springs center.
Our hike on PCT started by the small Snow Creek Village which is south of Highway 111 almost at San Gorgonio pass when going from Palm Springs towards LA. PCT crosses the pass along here and rises towards top of San Jacinto in the south and in the north towards mount San Gorgonio and bypasses Big Bear Lake before reaching the top. About 2.5 miles from our starting point at Snow Creek Road we turned back the same route. Our later trip to this part of PCT proofed that you may not find much more new views even if you would go much longer – except if you climb up to top of Mt. San Jacinto, which would require a really long day (remember: the Cactus to Clouds Trail from Palm Springs center to top of San Jacinto takes about 30 hours from an experienced mountain hiker!). You cand find below a gallery of photos from our first PCT experience, click on small images to see some English (captions in Finnish, sorry) text about each photo.
This part of PCT is in a great condition and well marked with PCT signs and I really can recommend it to anyone liking fairly easy hikes and happens to visit Palm Springs or even Los Angeles area.
After our first great experience we have returned both same area for a longer hike and around WhiteWater Canyon where PCT joins the preserve area hikes. PCT really is an experience at it goes through different deserts, snowy mountain views and forests with lakes and rivers. A great part of PCT runs along hill and mountain tops as the name “Crest” implies. If you happen to be interested in Sheryl Strayed’s route depicted in her book Wild go to PCT Association pages which includes six hiking advices along her 1 100 mile hike, you find them from this link. The distance from Palm Springs to Sheryl’s start is directly less than 200 miles northwest, but along PCT about 355 miles of hiking.
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