The San Jacinto mountains have experienced a remarkable sequence of tropical and monsoonal autumnal rains in the past eight weeks, as described in more detail in the Weather section below. San Jacinto Peak has recorded an impressive 7.46 inches of rainfall since 22nd August, with 4.20 inches recorded in Idyllwild (at 5550 ft) over the same period.
Further tropical moisture fell on 9th and 10th October (included in the numbers above). A storm system passing largely to the north of our region next week – mainly overnight on 14th-15th October – is associated with a cold front and will be the first winter storm of the season, in dramatic contrast to the warm, humid, tropical storms of recent weeks. Light precipitation starting in the afternoon of Tuesday 14th may include a dusting of snow above 10,000 ft elevation, but limited rainfall everywhere below that level.
Palm Springs Aerial Tramway closed for scheduled annual maintenance for five weeks starting 8th September, with a tentative reopening on 13th October 2025.
Water flows improved only briefly following the rain events of recent weeks, and many have already returned to their mid-August condition (example photos below). Some key hiker water sources are flowing reasonably well, but all ephemeral sources dried in the summer. Wellman’s Cienega and the pipe in Round Valley are flowing steadily and should now maintain useable flow deep into the autumn. Ephemeral sources along Marion Mountain Trail are all dry for the first time in more than two years. The creek in Little Round Valley has already dried again where it passes through the meadow and also where it crosses Deer springs Trail, but continues to flow patchily in its central section. Deer Springs creek dried up in late July where it crosses the trail of the same name, and has dried again following very brief flow last month. The North Fork of the San Jacinto River is flowing where it crosses both Fuller Ridge and Deer Springs trails. Marion Creek is flowing steadily where it crosses the Suicide Rock Trail. Strawberry Cienega (approx PCT Mile 181.9), which dried in midsummer, is temporarily trickling again, but not sufficiently to filter any useful volume of water.
Willow Creek is flowing (weakly) again where it crosses the Willow Creek Trail, having dried in August. All other minor creeks that cross Willow Creek Trail remain dry however. Hidden Lake dried by the end of June (although it temporarily holds a tiny pond from recent rains). Long Valley Creek is dry where it passes through Round Valley, as is the nearby creek in Tamarack Valley. Water is flowing reliably in Tahquitz Creek at PCT Mile 177 and again further downstream at the north end of Little Tahquitz Meadow (although it is dry between those two locations). The pipe in Tahquitz Meadow dried up in mid July. Skunk Cabbage Meadow creek is functionally dry and no longer useful for filtering. Middle Spring on Devil’s Slide Trail has been functionally dry since 1st August, but I maintain a tiny pool there from which dogs can drink.
Full fire restrictions began on Tuesday 1st July 2025 on Forest Service lands, as described on the USFS website linked here. Campfires throughout USFS lands in the San Jacinto Mountains, including all campgrounds and yellow post sites, are prohibited.
Note that during the federal government shutdown, the U.S. Forest Service Idyllwild Ranger Station is closed. Adventure passes and wilderness permits are not required (or are at least unenforceable) until the shutdown ends. Unlike the 2018-19 shutdown which occurred in the winter months of December-January, gates on Forest Service roads and USFS campgrounds have remained open (for now).
Fire lookouts at Black Mountain and Tahquitz Peak are closed indefinitely due to issues identified in a May 2025 safety inspection of Black Mountain lookout. Regrettably it is now unlikely that either will reopen this year.
Be bear aware. Although generally rarely reported, 4-5 individually identifiable Black Bears have been observed in the San Jacinto mountains since 2017, and I have personally seen at least one annually for the past six years. Two bears have been seen in multiple locations in Fern Valley since late August, a large, chestnut-colored adult (images in the previous Report linked here) initially seen on Willow Creek Trail, plus a smaller immature dark-colored individual. My brief videos from Devil’s Slide Trail in September 2021 (linked here) and one walking through our property in Idyllwild in 2018 (linked here) show two other individuals. There have been no reports of negative interactions with humans in the high country, at or near campsites, or on trails.
Survey hikes by the Trail Report daily and year-round in the San Jacinto mountains include multiple routes to the highest peaks including San Jacinto Peak typically at least twice per week (more frequently during stormy weather), Tahquitz Peak and area at least once per week, plus a wide variety of other trails on intervening days.
WEATHER
Temperatures stabilized at (or even slightly below) seasonal for the last week of September. They are now forecast to remain near seasonal for the first half of October, with a warming trend on 7th-10th. There is currently only light precipitation in the forecasts, as described above associated with the breakdown of Hurricane Priscilla, most likely on 9th-10th October. Typical autumnal temperatures forecast for the high country may include temperatures close to freezing around the highest peaks in October, most notably associated with the passage of a cold front after Monday 13th.
The San Jacinto mountains received valuable monsoonal and tropical rainfall in late August and early September, as described in detail in an earlier Report (linked here). Subsequently the heaviest rainfall was on 18th September, as described in the previous Report (linked here). Additional rainfall fell on Saturday 27th September when a highly localized storm cell – at that time it wasn’t even raining in nearby Pine Cove – produced 0.57 inch of rain in Idyllwild in just an hour early in the afternoon. A spectacular thunderstorm that evening was more widespread, with a further 0.38 inch of rain in Idyllwild, and very heavy rain in Garner Valley. Some parts of the high country received reasonable rainfall (0.61 inch at San Jacinto Peak and 0.41 inch at Wellman’s Cienega) but other areas missed the most intense precipitation (only 0.1 inch in Long Valley all day).
At San Jacinto Peak (10,811ft/3295m) on Friday 10th October 2025 at 1015 the air temperature was 50.6°F (10°C), with a windchill temperature of 42.4°F (6°C), 82% relative humidity, and a steady SSW wind sustained at 6 mph gusting to 10.6 mph.
At the Peak on Monday 6th October 2025 at 0900 the air temperature was 48.7°F (9°C), with a windchill temperature of 41.0°F (5°C), 31% relative humidity, and a light SSW wind sustained at 3 mph gusting to 9.0 mph.
At the Peak on Friday 3rd October 2025 at 0640 the air temperature was 38.5°F (4°C), with a windchill temperature of 23.5°F (-5°C), 37% relative humidity, and a stiff SW wind sustained at 19 mph gusting to 33.4 mph.
TRAIL CONDITIONS
The established trail system was completely clear of snow by late May. Most trails have suffered only minor tread erosion from recent intense rains. Neither the Wolf Fire in late June nor the Rosa Fire in early August had major impacts on the trail system, although the latter did burn the southernmost 0.5 mile of the Palm Canyon trail.
For the first time in a decade, upper Deer Springs Trail – between the top of Marion Mountain Trail and Little Round Valley – is now clear of blowdowns, with the Trail Report having removed nine trees this year, including the two major hazards at PCT Mile 185.3 that came down this past winter.
A joint Eastern Sierra Conservation Corps/State Park crew working on 2nd-6th October made good progress trimming Deer Springs Trail just above the Fuller Ridge Trail junction to about 9300 ft. While some progress was made cutting a few trees lower down on Deer Springs Trail, they unfortunately failed to clear the long-term major blowdowns located 0.25 mile north of Strawberry Junction, and about 0.9 mile south of Strawberry Junction.
On PCT Miles 170-175 (roughly Apache Peak to Red Tahquitz) most blowdowns have been removed but six trees remain to be cut around South Peak (Miles 173.5-174) of which most are significant obstructions for hikers. Sections of the trail are badly overgrown with brush and in their worst condition in decades, especially most of Miles 168-174.
The two large downed trees near PCT Mile 180 were removed by the Trail Report this spring. The Strawberry Trail (PCT Miles 180.8-183.1) has ten blowdowns, none of which pose major hazards to hikers. Of the eight on the Forest Service section, several have been down for 8-10 years and reported repeatedly but with no action. The brush along Miles 181-181.7 has become heavily overgrown since it was last trimmed in 2021.
The maintenance condition of the Fuller Ridge (Miles 185.5-190.5) section of the PCT improved in July 2025, with the Trail Report clearing most of the 15 blowdowns and a PCTA volunteer crew cutting the remainder the following week.
On the Wellman Trail, Wellman’s Cienega is flowing relatively well compared to earlier in the autumn (photo below). The Trail Report continues the work it started last year to keep this trail clear (after it had become badly overgrown by early 2024).
Dark Canyon Road (4S02) had some effective basic maintenance on its dirt section in the spring. The associated Dark Canyon campground is closed for the year (apparently due to federal budget cuts).
For the first time in about 20 years Seven Pines Trail has a continuous route completely cleared of blowdown trees, with the trail also as faithful to the original route as possible. The Trail Report “adopted” Seven Pines as a priority for maintenance work nearly a decade ago due to a disproportionate number of lost hiker rescues (with State Park and Forest Service evidently no longer maintaining the route). Since 2019 we have now removed exactly 100 downed trees – including 25 since April of this year – and the trail is largely trimmed and cleared annually. Although our work has restored this delightful trail, Seven Pines remains a genuine wilderness trail unlike the wider, bare, obvious routes of, for example, Devil’s Slide or Marion Mountain trails. Cautious navigation remains invaluable for those without extensive experience of hiking this trail.
Black Mountain Road is open and in its typical non-graded condition, i.e. lumpy but readily passable in any moderate clearance vehicle. The tap at Cinco Poses Spring currently has reliable water (located alongside the road 0.2 mile below the Boulder Basin turning).
On Willow Creek Trail whitethorn urgently needs trimming again especially near the boundary between the two agencies. The two large trees remaining uncut in the State Park section from several years ago have easy workarounds.
The Caramba Trail from near Reeds Meadow through Laws Camp and on to Caramba, and the Cedar Trail from Willow Creek Trail to Laws, are euphemistically (and arguably dangerously) described by the Forest Service as “not maintained”. In reality both trails have been abandoned for more than a decade and no longer exist. They are so heavily overgrown, largely with dense whitethorn which obscures dozens of downed trees, that hikers should not attempt to follow them (regardless of how much you may trust any particular app).
An informal use trail to Laws is much more direct, generally well maintained, and avoids the bushwhacking of the abandoned trails (some local Idyllwild hikers dubbed it the “King Trail” when I established the route in 2019). It leaves Willow Creek Trail exactly 1.0 mile from Saddle Junction, 0.46 mile from the Skunk Cabbage turning (trailhead at N 33.7796, W 116.6590). The route descends following former deer trails for 1.2 miles, meeting Willow Creek about 0.15 mile upstream from the site of the historic Laws Camp (the remains of which were destroyed by the 2013 Mountain Fire and subsequent flood and treefall damage). One huge pine tree fell in late 2024 across the King Trail about midway down that requires a minor scramble underneath, but nine additional blowdowns have been removed since January 2025, with the trail already trimmed and cleared twice this year.
From Laws east to Caramba the original Caramba Trail has been cairned by myself and others and can largely be followed with skilled route-finding. My most recent 2025 survey counted 120 trees down on this 2.1 miles of trail. It is extremely obscure for the first 0.5 mile east of the Willow Creek crossing, becoming more obvious (but still subtle) as it descends towards Caramba. Very cautious navigation is strongly recommended throughout the area.
Storms early in 2025 brought down another 34 trees across Spitler Peak Trail. All but one were removed by the Trail Report, bringing to 162 the total number of trees we have removed from this route in the past seven years. One very large burned cedar remains across the trail immediately after the first creek crossing 3.2 miles up from the trailhead. A couple of other much more recent blowdowns are small and easily stepped over.
The Zen Center Trail continues its serious deterioration that started following the 2013 Mountain Fire, with a combination of vigorous regrowth and treefall hazards further obscuring the route with each passing season. The lower and upper thirds of this trail are partially cairned and not too bad for those who are very familiar with the former route, but even the experienced find navigating the central section tricky. Long trousers, scrambling gloves, and a genuine enjoyment of bush-whacking are all strongly recommended.
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