Black Mountain

We hiked up to the fire lookout on top of Black Mountain today, 8 miles round trip with 2,600' of gain.

 Both white and blue ceanothus near the trailhead.

 The trail started out steep, we were glad it was in the shade this morning.

 The first part of the trail felt like a forest of ceanuthus and manzanita, they were as tall as trees.

 Not many wildflowers along the trail today, but we saw some lupine starting to bloom.

 The trail then winds it way up though boulders strewn throughout the pine forest. Mt San Gorgonio in the distance.

 Looking towards Black Mountain, we would not see the summit until we were almost on top of it.

Lovely large cedar tree among the pines.

 Near the top, the trail splits and we took the short steep way up to the lookout, seen behind the boulder.

 Black Mountain Fire Lookout on top of Black Mountain at 7,772'




















San Jacinto

 Mt Baldy on the left, San Gorgonio on the right

We did not see any rattlesnakes today.

 Mt Baldy as seen though these large boulders on top of Black Mountain.

 one of the many lizards we saw along the trail today.

 From the top of Black Mountain, we took the longer and gentler closed road down to the trail junction, view of Mt San Jacinto

 Large rock formation with a window along the closed road.

 Mt San Jacinto through the rock window

 some of the pine cones were bigger than my feet

 We found a patch of snow along the way

 Enjoying the views back on the trail as we hiked down among the boulders.

 Large manzanita

 paintbrush

pretty small pink and white flowers.