San Jacinto Peak
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San Jacinto Peak ( ; often designated Mount San Jacinto) is a peak in the
San Jacinto Mountains The San Jacinto Mountains ()Munro, P., et al. ''A Mojave Dictionary''. Los Angeles: UCLA. 1992. are a mountain range in Riverside County, California, Riverside County, located east of Los Angeles, California, Los Angeles in southern California i ...
, in
Riverside County, California Riverside County is a County (United States), county located in the Southern California, southern portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, its population was 2,418,185, making it the fourth-most ...
. Lying within
Mount San Jacinto State Park Mount San Jacinto State Park is in the San Jacinto Mountains, of the Peninsular Ranges system, in Riverside County, California, United States. A majority of the park is within the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument. The park ...
it is the highest both in the range and the county, and serves as the southern border of the
San Gorgonio Pass The San Gorgonio Pass, or Banning Pass, is a elevation Gap (landform), gap on the rim of the Great Basin between the San Bernardino Mountains to the north and the San Jacinto Mountains to the south. The pass was formed by the San Andreas Faul ...
. San Jacinto Peak is one of the most
topographically prominent In topography, prominence or relative height (also referred to as autonomous height, and shoulder drop in US English, and drop in British English) measures the height of a mountain or hill's summit relative to the lowest contour line encircling ...
peaks in the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
, and is ranked the sixth most prominent peak in the 48 contiguous states. According to John W. Robinson and Bruce D. Risher, authors of ''The San Jacintos,'' "No Southern California hiker worth his salt would miss climbing 'San Jack' at least once." Known for its spectacular north escarpment, the peak rises over above San Gorgonio Pass. It plays host to the famous
Cactus to Clouds Trail The Cactus to Clouds Trail (C2C) is a hiking route in California. It begins in Palm Springs, California, and ascends to San Jacinto Peak. With a net elevation gain of roughly , it has one of the greatest elevation increases among day-hike routes i ...
.


Geography

To the east of San Jacinto, the peak towers over the city of
Palm Springs Palm Springs (Cahuilla language, Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Rivers ...
(elevation 479 ft; 146 m); to the west, it borders the mountain community of Idyllwild (elevation 5,413 ft; 1,650 m). The peak is also frequently called Mount San Jacinto. The steep
escarpment An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that forms as a result of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively level areas having different elevations. Due to the similarity, the term '' scarp'' may mistakenly be incorrectly used inte ...
of its north face, above Snow Creek, climbs over in . This is one of the largest gains in elevation over such a small horizontal distance in the
contiguous United States The contiguous United States, also known as the U.S. mainland, officially referred to as the conterminous United States, consists of the 48 adjoining U.S. states and the District of Columbia of the United States in central North America. The te ...
. From the peak,
San Gorgonio Mountain San Gorgonio Mountain, also known locally as Mount San Gorgonio, or Old Greyback, is the highest peak in Southern California and the Transverse Ranges at . It is in the San Bernardino Mountains, east of the city of San Bernardino, California, S ...
can be seen across the
San Gorgonio Pass The San Gorgonio Pass, or Banning Pass, is a elevation Gap (landform), gap on the rim of the Great Basin between the San Bernardino Mountains to the north and the San Jacinto Mountains to the south. The pass was formed by the San Andreas Faul ...
. Also easily visible below is the
Coachella Valley The Coachella Valley ( ) is an arid rift valley in the Colorado Desert of Southern California in Riverside County. The valley has been referred to as Greater Palm Springs and occasionally the Palm Springs Area due to the historic promine ...
and the
Salton Sea The Salton Sea is a shallow, landlocked, highly salinity, saline endorheic lake in Riverside County, California, Riverside and Imperial County, California, Imperial counties in Southern California. It lies on the San Andreas Fault within the S ...
. In addition, much of the
Inland Empire The Inland Empire (commonly abbreviated as the IE) is a metropolitan area and region inland of and adjacent to coastal Southern California, centering around the cities of San Bernardino and Riverside, and bordering Los Angeles County and Or ...
, including
Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...
to the west, can be viewed on a clear day. Named after
Hyacinth of Caesarea Hyacinth (, ''Hyakinthos''; died 108 AD) was a young Christian living at the start of the second century, who is honored as a martyr and a saint by both the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church. Hyacinth is sometimes called by hi ...
, Mount San Jacinto is one of the "Four Saints," a name occasionally used to describe the high points of the four mountains over 10,000 feet named for Catholic saints in Southern California: San Jacinto Peak,
Mount San Gorgonio San Gorgonio is Spanish for " Saint Gorgonius"; San Gorgonio might also refer to: Landforms and parks *San Gorgonio Mountain, California, United States *San Gorgonio Pass, California, United States *San Gorgonio River, California, United States * ...
(high point of the
San Bernardino Mountains The San Bernardino Mountains are a high and rugged mountain range in Southern California in the United States. Situated north and northeast of San Bernardino and spanning two California counties, the range tops out at at San Gorgonio Mountain ...
), San Bernardino Peak, and
Mount San Antonio Mount San Antonio, commonly referred to as Mount Baldy or Old Baldy, is a summit in the San Gabriel Mountains on the border of Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties of California. Lying within the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument an ...
(high point of the
San Gabriel Mountains The San Gabriel Mountains () are a mountain range located in Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties, California, United States. The mountain range is part of the Transverse Ranges and lies between the Los Angeles Basin and the Mojave Desert ...
).


Climate


History

The peak is known to the
Cahuilla The Cahuilla, also known as ʔívil̃uqaletem or Ivilyuqaletem, are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American people of the various tribes of the Cahuilla Nation, living in the inland areas of southern California. ...
Native Americans as ''I a kitch'' (or ''Aya Kaich''), meaning "smooth cliffs." It is regarded as the home of '' Dakush'', the meteor and legendary founder of the Cahuilla. In 1878, a
Wheeler Survey The Wheeler Survey, carried out in 1872-1879, was one of the "Four Great Surveys" conducted by the United States government after the Civil War primarily to document the geology and natural resources of the American West. Supervised by First Lieu ...
topographical party led by rancher Charles Thomas of Garner Valley climbed the peak. The Wheeler Survey gave the mountain the name "San Jacinto Peak" (rather than "Mt. San Jacinto" or "San Jacinto Mountain.") The earliest recorded ascent of the peak was made in September, 1874 by "F. of Riverside," according to a description of his ascent in the ''
San Diego Union ''The San Diego Union-Tribune'' is a metropolitan daily newspaper published in San Diego, California, that has run since 1868. Its name derives from a 1992 merger between the two major daily newspapers at the time, ''The San Diego Union'' and ...
''. The first successful ascent of the difficult northeast escarpment was made in 1931 by Floyd Vernoy and Stewart White of Riverside. The peak is flanked by Jean Peak and Marion Mountain . These peaks were named in 1897 by
USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an government agency, agency of the United States Department of the Interior, U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geograp ...
topographer Edmund Taylor Perkins Jr. Perkins named Jean Peak for his sweetheart and future bride, Jean Waters of Plumas County, whom he married in 1903. He named Marion Mountain after Marion Kelly, his girlfriend, a teacher for the Indian Bureau at the Morongo Valley Reservation. According to a local legend, Perkins spent the summer of 1897 deciding which woman to marry while he conducted his
topographical Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the landforms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps. Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary scienc ...
survey of San Jacinto Peak and its environs. Nearby Cornell Peak is named for
Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...
, the alma mater of geologist Robert T. Hill. Perkins and Hill were camping in Round Valley when Hill remarked that the peak looked like the campanile tower at Cornell. Perkins later named the peak Cornell Peak. In 1931 and 1932, the San Jacinto Mountain Chamber of Commerce sponsored a Labor Day footrace from Idyllwild to San Jacinto Peak and back, a distance of and a rise of . The 1931 race was won by Tom Humphreys, a
Hopi The Hopi are Native Americans who primarily live in northeastern Arizona. The majority are enrolled in the Hopi Tribe of Arizona and live on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona; however, some Hopi people are enrolled in the Colorado ...
, in 3:36:30. Humphreys won the race again in 1932 with a time of 3:12. Near the summit of San Jacinto peak is a stone hut that was built in 1935 by the
Civilian Conservation Corps The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government unemployment, work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was ...
under the direction of Serbo-Croatian immigrant Alfred Zarubicka, a stonemason known in Idyllwild as "Zubi."


Hiking

San Jacinto Peak is easily accessible, as many trails penetrate the
Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument The Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument is a U.S. National Monument, national monument in Southern California. It includes portions of the Santa Rosa Mountains (California), Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains, San Jacinto mo ...
. The most popular route starts with a ride on the
Palm Springs Aerial Tramway The Palm Springs Aerial Tramway in Palm Springs, California, is the largest rotating aerial tramway in the world. It was opened in September 1963 as a way of getting from the floor of the Coachella Valley to near the top of San Jacinto Peak and w ...
from Valley Station at near Palm Springs up to Mountain Station at . From there, one can easily climb the mountain face via trails. Another route is to hike the Marion Mountain Trail from near the mountain town of Idyllwild. There is a naturally reproducing but introduced population of
Sequoiadendron ''Sequoiadendron'' is a genus of evergreen trees, with three species, only one of which survives to the present: * ''Sequoiadendron giganteum'', extant species, extant, commonly known as wellingtonia, giant redwood and giant sequoia, growing nat ...
s planted in 1974 located here hundreds of miles from native populations. The
Cactus to Clouds Trail The Cactus to Clouds Trail (C2C) is a hiking route in California. It begins in Palm Springs, California, and ascends to San Jacinto Peak. With a net elevation gain of roughly , it has one of the greatest elevation increases among day-hike routes i ...
involves an arduous climb of approximately from the desert floor in Palm Springs to the summit at . This trail has no water sources until , so early starts are advised to avoid the temperatures which often soar above .


See also

* List of California county high points *
List of Ultras of the United States The following sortable table comprises the 200 most topographically prominent mountain peaks of the United States of America. The summit of a mountain or hill may be measured in three principal ways: #The topographic elevation of a summit m ...
*
Tahquitz (spirit) Tahquitz (, sometimes ) is a spirit found in the legends of the Cahuilla, Kumeyaay and Luiseño Native American people of Southern California. Accounts of the legend vary significantly, but most agree that Tahquitz represents evil or death, and h ...


References


External links

* * * * * * * {{Authority control Mountains of Riverside County, California Religious places of the Indigenous peoples of North America Sacred mountains of the United States San Jacinto Mountains Mountains of Southern California San Gorgonio Pass