"Mt. Baldy (San Antonio)" California Travelogue by bruingirl

Stats on the hike:
Distance - 11.25 miles r/t
Elevation gain - 4300ft.
Summit - 10,064ft.

We started the hike, bright and early, at 8am from the Manker Flats trailhead which is not too far from Baldy Village. Don't forget to get a wilderness pass for your vehicle! You can also get great info at www.localhikes.com.

Alexander, Angela, & Bill

We decided to take a break at about 8200ft, which is where the Ski Hut is located. The Ski Hut was built by the Sierra Club back in the 1930s and has been maintained by them ever since. It was a great place for a mid-morning break and carb ingestion! :)

What a beautiful day!

The weather couldn't have been more accomodating! It was a gorgeous day with the perfect breeze all the way up to the summit. Here' s a neat little tidbit of info: Mt. Baldy, as is commonly known, is actually Mt. San Antonio. Back in the late 1800s/early 1900s, miners came up to this mountain and started exploiting it. In order to do this, they had to use dynamite to blow parts of the top of the mountain. This caused rock slides and other environmental changes which gave the mountain a "bald" look. Since then, Mt. San Antonio has come to be known as Mt. Baldy.

The Summit!!!

We got to the summit about 4hrs later at 10,064ft! There were TONS of people at the summit - about 60+! It was nice to have a nice lunch, lay back on a rock shelter and soak up the sun.

Artsy shot.... :)

I was just playing around with my camera in this picture. I was pointing it north, where places like Apple Valley are located.

Snow!!

As you can see, there was some snow at the summit. It was rather slushy, as to be expected, in April.

As we were hiking back down via the Devil's Backbone, we were met with sheer drops on either sides of the ridge. You can see in this picture why this mountain peak is called Mt. Baldy....it looks kinda bald!

In front of San Antonio Falls

After finally descending the majority of the 4300ft, we found ourselves in front of the San Antonio Falls. How we managed to miss this on the way up is still a mystery to me....