Mount Baldy via Bear Canyon

Bear Canyon has finally re-opened!

Last summer, while I was on San Gorgonio, the area around Mount Baldy was also hit by a flash flood, damaging the town and also some of the trails. Bear Canyon was one of those trails, and had been closed since that time.

With it's re-opening, people are starting to use it again, and it's a great alternate view of the Mount Baldy area.

Different views, fewer people

The trail is probably comparable to the Register Ridge trail up Mount Baldy in terms of difficulty. However, what I really liked about it was that it summits West Baldy first, which in my opinion is a much nicer peak to be on (due to the lack of people).

Our group made it up to West Baldy, then Baldy itself, then Mount Harwood, before making our way down Devil's Backbone and to the ski lodge at the saddle.

The view up to West Baldy

As usual, I took the gully below the ski lift back down to Manker Flats, which I contend is still the fastest and least boring way to get down.

The only downside to this hike is that if you want to do it in a loop, it needs to be done as a shuttle trip, as the distance between Manker Flats and the start of the Bear Canyon trailhead is not reasonably walkable.

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