On this trip we spent some time in the town of Idyllwild and stayed at a romantic little cabin compete with a cozy fireplace. It was perfect for the holidays. The weather was chilly and there were still patches of snow around from the last snowfall. I’d been wanting to come up here for a while, but never made the time. I finally had a chance to scope out some new potential trails to explore on this side of the mountain. The trail that we chose was the Deer Springs Trail. This trail will take you all the way to the top of Mt. San Jacinto. It’s about a 16 mile round trip hike, and I’d love to do this over the summer when the snow is melted. Today we hiked a little past the junction for Suicide Rock. The trail was steep without much of a breather, but it was lovely and a nice, steady climb. At about 6,000’ feet we started to encounter more snow and some patches of ice on the trail, but nothing unsafe that we couldn’t navigate with light traction. We did about six miles today. The weather was perfect with clear skies and fresh mountain air! We will definitely be back again.