Skyline June 7 or 8; first timer

[GoPlayer]

Great forum! I found this place sometime last year looking for hikes in SoCal. Now I'm getting ready to attempt Skyline, it looks like I'll be by myself. I did a lot of reading here and will have to sort out the info I found.

So far I have these questions:
1) Where would be the closest place to camp the night before the hike? Undeveloped, eg. BLM/National forest would be okay.

2) Save parking seems to be an issue. Somewhere "underground parking" close to the museum is mentioned. What are the details on that? Cost? Hours of operation? (are they open at sunrise)

Thanks for the help!

[pdforeme]

parking; we parked at 4am near Museum. at end of Tahquitz, as you turn right towards museum, there's about 3 parallel stalls. Or also the drive in front of museum looks like it could handle a dozen. We chose end of tahquitz cuz it appeared more trafficked.

we were fine, but funny as we were ascending we heard about 3 diff car alarms go off (you can hear 1/2 of palm springs from the lower elevations)

[tinaballina]

So far I have these questions:
1) Where would be the closest place to camp the night before the hike? Undeveloped, eg. BLM/National forest would be okay.

2) Save parking seems to be an issue. Somewhere "underground parking" close to the museum is mentioned. What are the details on that? Cost? Hours of operation? (are they open at sunrise)

Thanks for the help![/quote]

Hello, i may be doing skyline sunday, my other plans fell through. As far as camping goes, couldn't help you on that. Although parking if you are going to do overnight i would suggest the hyatt hotel parking lot which is in front of the museum. i think the cost is $7.-$10. daily. Cy or Mark might know for sure.
Hope to see you on the trail.

[zippetydude]

I don't know of any camping spots either. If you're not coming in from too far away, you might consider sleeping at home, then driving directly and starting when you arrive. I always do better if I've been awake a couple of hours before I start, so the drive beforehand helps me wake up. You could always stay in a hotel right at the trailhead (I've done that too, and it's real nice to come down the tram and spend the afternoon relaxing by the pool!) but it's kinda pricey, so I've only done that once. I might go on the 7th also, so perhaps we'll meet on the trail.

z

[Ken7]

You may be able to camp at the Whitewater Preserve, which is a new preserve owned the Wildlands Conservancy. I think that it is about 10 to 15 miles from the trailhead. It is a beautiful place. You may see bighorn sheep there.

Another place to camp is at the county campground in Idyllwild. That is about 47 miles and a little over an hour from the trailhead. In addition, there are other places to camp on USFS holdings near 243 north of Idyllwild. The county campground has more amenities and is close to a grocery store.

Not far from the trailhead, on South Palm Canyon, there are some relatively reasonably-priced motels, like the Vagabond.

[Davis2001r6]

We "camped" at Motel 6 one time. With the heat you'll want like a 2am start time, so you won't be getting much sleep anyways. It will still be light close to 8pm and I know I can't fall asleep in a tent if it's light out, plus it will be close to 100 degrees. I'll gladly pay the $50-100 for the motel/hotel that within 10 minutes drive.

I parked right in front of the museum before with no problems.

[GoPlayer]

Thanks for all the replies! You made some very good points and made it easy for me to decide: I'm going for a motel. That should give me the best chance for some quality rest and enable an early start.

So at this point I plan on doing the hike on Saturday. Sounds like there is a chance for meeting some of you out there.

[KathyW]

If you're heading up this weekend, keep the weather forecast in mind - you might not want to sleep too much and end up hiking up in the hot sun:

Friday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 70.

Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 96.

Saturday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 68.

Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 96.

[Whitney Mike]

When I did Skyline last Saturday, I got to Palm Springs Friday afternoon. Ate dinner at the local California Pizza Kitchen, and went bed at 6:00pm. We stayed at the Best Western Las Brisas, and from there it is only .7 miles to the museum trailhead. To avoid any possibility of a car being broken into, we left the cars at the hotel parking lot and walked to the trailhead. It took us only about 15 minutes, and I think this is how we will do it on all future trips.

Whitney Mike

[GoPlayer]

KathyW,
the weather is the reason for my decision to go with a motel rather than driving up in the morning (I'm about 2h away).

Whitney Mike,
I'm planning on doing something very similar to what you did last Saturday.

Initially I didn't want to leave in the dark since I don't know the trail and from the reports around here it sounds like the bottom part is where people get "lost" in the dark. Now with the heat I don't think I have much of a choice. This will be one occasion where having the GPS track might come in handy.