Marion Mountain Trailhead — Attraction in Palm Springs

Very scenic trail and quite strenuous. At this time of year, there are many overgrown vegetation that obscured the trail. I got lost before the PCT junction, was probably following a game animal trail instead, when realized it, I could not find my way back .. ouch .. no signal on the phone.. and failed to download the map to my phone .. so could not tell exactly where I was ...so decided to head down the mountain in the direction where I thought the trail head was.. it was quite difficult and treacherous, very steep and very thick bush, good thing I had a hiking stick to help stop sliding in some places. Found a creek, and decided to follow a long the creek, which may not be the best route as creek/stream tend to go the steepest route downward. Found a very nice waterfall along the way (I uploaded the picture to google map). Ran into several very deep gullies that I had to navigate around. Eventually ended up at forest road 4S02 at place called Dark Canyon, then walked back to trail head where I parked. Glad to make it back safely. The trail could use better signage , especially where there appear to be trail junctions whether man made or game animal made. Also at times the trail are somewhat obscured by overgrown bushes covering trail. Bring lots of water, and mobile pre-loaded with maps. Will be back next time to...

Trailhead parking is ample but the single entrance/exit restricts availability sometimes. We were unlucky enough to have two cars park directly in the entrance when we came down from San Jacinto while we were clearly in front of them parked in the lot which blocked us from getting out. Clearer signage on what's parking might help. As for the hike up to San Jacinto peak it's about 13 miles round trip from the trailhead and you gain about 4500' of elevation. It's decently hard but the views at the top are amazing on clear days. We camped at Little Round Valley on 2/22/2020 and there snow coverage everywhere...

I'm a hiking tour guide in the Palm Springs area, but I've always wanted to go to the top of Mt. San Jacinto, it's the 2nd highest peak in Southern Cali. We started at 6am and got back to the trailhead at 3pm with about 14 miles total. It was tough but the views were worth it. It's definitely an advanced hike with about 4600 feet elevation gain. It was pretty busy at the top but the weather was perfect! See my hikes by doing a Google search for...