Cactus to Clouds

The Cactus to Clouds trail is pretty insane. It rises from the desert floor in Palm Springs and covers 15 miles to the Summit of San Jacinto gaining over 10k vertical feet along the way. Most people who hike or run the trail stop at the 10 mile mark in Long Valley where the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway is located, 8k feet above the starting point!

I was in Palm Springs with Rachael for our "baby moon" and thought it would be a good idea to take day to explore this trail while she got some shopping in. Driving to the trail head looking at the mountain I was about to climb up was pretty intimidating!

The trail leaves from the back of the Palm Springs Art Museum parking lot through a small break in the wall and an information board about the first mile of the trail that didn't mention the fact it went all the way to the summit, which I found weird, but I was pretty sure I was in the right spot so I started up. It wasn't long before I hit some picnic tables where I stopped to take in the views.

Against all conventional wisdom I departed for this adventure at around 10am. Everybody says to leave early for a reason. It is hot on this trail and there is no shade. Even though it was late October the temps were pushing mid 80's and climbing constantly was hard work making for a rough combination. Then you see this.

Yes that says 8 miles and 10 hours until water! That is how steep this trail is. People get themselves into serious trouble out here if they are not prepared. I felt prepared, albeit a bit dehydrated from too many beers at the Yard House the previous night, so I kept moving. The trail was steady up from the beginning and really hard to follow. There were probably 100 different ways you could have gone for a good portion of the first miles before the trail became more straight forward. It was tough to get much running in on the way up, mostly just power hiking and sweating!

 It was just about 3hr 30min to get to the Tram Station and some much needed water. Also a pretty epic view looking back at what I had just come up!

I spent a nice 30 minutes hanging out amongst the boulders scattered around the Tram Station realizing that I have yet to come to this area to do some bouldering. Must come back as it looks amazing!

 

Although it seems like most people take the Tram back down after coming up Cactus to Clouds I couldn't pass up a solid 8k of descending so it was back down the same way I came up. Heading down the steeps was a lot of fun but definitely work. Loose footing the whole way plus tiring legs and lots of momentum can make for some scary moments. Luckily no falls just great views and smooth running back down to the bottom!