Mount San Jacinto

Mount San Jacinto rises to 10,834 feet above Palm Springs, California, the highest peak of the San Jacinto Mountains and one of the most abrupt mountain fronts in North America. From the floor of the Coachella Valley the north face climbs nearly two vertical miles in a few horizontal miles, a wall of granite that catches snow while the desert below sits in the sun. The Palm Springs Aerial Tramway climbs the escarpment to the high forest, and the Cactus to Clouds route walks the whole thing from the valley floor.

This map traces that escarpment. The contour lines on the north and east sides are compressed into dense, almost unbroken bands, following the ridges and chutes that fall toward the desert. To the west and south the spacing opens up across the forested plateau of the state park and wilderness, where the summit is reached by comparatively gentle trails. Within this frame the terrain covers more than 7,000 feet, all of it inside a frame a few miles across.