IWV Trail

Approach

This is the Indian Wells Valley (IWV) trail. Follow the driving directions listed on the link from this page. It is recommended to have a high clearance vehicle for the drive in. After winter rains the road gets washed out and/or snowed on and sometimes 4 wheel drive can become necessary.

Route Description

Once you reach the TH, you'll start on an old jeep road for a short ways. You'll come to a junction where an overgrown jeep road heads uphill to the left, but you'll continue straight going downhill for just a bit. Here, the path turns to a more narrow trail and takes you straight to the summit, climbing steadily the whole way. Up higher, the trail gets loose and there are some use trails widning around. Follow the most traveled path. At the time of this writing someone placed many helpful cairns along the way. Eventually, you reach a short boulder hop across darkish colored rocks - stay on its right side. A short section of trail follows, which leads to the Class 2 granite slabs you need to scramble up. From the top of these, a rather steep trail takes some short switchbacks up to the summit.

Another decenet route description along with driving directions, can be found here

Essential Gear

None really. However, winter time could require the use of gaiters and maybe an ice axe.