Climbing San Jacinto in the dark

General Palm Springs area.

Climbing San Jacinto in the dark

Postby hiiker » Fri Jul 12, 2013 9:26 pm

Today while climbing to the top of San Jacinto I ran across two different people that claim you can see the lights of Las Vegas from the summit. I personally don't see how you can but never having been on the summit in the dark I wonder if it is even possible. IMO the curvature of the earth and the San Berdo Mountains would prevent one from seeing that far north.

BTW, it was wonderful on top today, heavy rain, lightning and 51f. I only stayed a few minutes on the summit then made a bee line to lower elevations where it was raining even harder at Wellmans Divide. That's the first time I got ran off the peak because of weather. :(
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Postby neverwashasbeen » Fri Jul 12, 2013 10:39 pm

You cannot see the lights of Las Vegas from the top of San Jacinto, but you can see the glow.
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Postby Hikin_Jim » Fri Jul 12, 2013 11:24 pm

Interesting. There's a lot of stuff in between LV and San Jac, but the San Bernardinos are slightly to the west. Map link.

If you go to McCullough Peak, which is just south of Las Vegas, elevation 7,000+ feet, you can definitely get line of sight to parts of the San Jacintos according to Hey, What's That? I was able to hit Gray Tahquitz, Fuller Ridge, Wellman Divide, Apache Peak, and of course, San Jac itself. If you turn on the "visibility cloak," you should be able to get a good idea of what can be seen.

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