Unfortunately, I did not get to go into it. I thought I saw some people come out of it that were getting ready to backpack somewhere. I was pretty sure there were people in it while I was heading up. I then tried to enter it myself and it appeared to be locked. It was a minor disappointment, but since I had been in other shelters like this before (ex. The Whitney Summmit Hut) I was more than happy to keep on moving down.From the hut to the summit there is a few hundred feet of elevation gain. The issue here is that this is the only part of the hike that you have to scramble over boulders. In my picture you can barely see the moon overhead, and there are some people hanging out on the right near the summit.
There were a bunch of people at the summit. Many people were having their picture taken near the very top. There is a sign that gives the elevation and a few benchmarks. Right next to it is a rock or two that gets you to the highest point. After a few people came down from the top rocks, I made my break for the high point and got out my camcorder and started to do a quick pan video of the summit. I then took some pictures in all directions. I ended up doing it really quickly since more people were coming to the spot near the sign.This first picture is looking toward the southeast where I started at the top of the tram:
Just panning slightly to the left and still looking toward the southeast.
This is looking toward the east and into Palm Springs.
More to the northeast in the following picture:
I was on the 2nd highest mountain in southern California, but San Gorgonio, just across the way on the left side of the picture, is the highest. You will notice that one never truly escapes trees on this mountain.
I will continue the summit views in the next blog.
