Oh man, you guys lucked out with your timing and those flowers. Salvia pachyphylla. They're amazing.

We'll be in that area tomorrow, but we're not hiking the peak. I'm looking forward to it.

And yeah, Charleston was looking pretty damned dry last weekend.

Telescope Peak is already pretty well melted out. Folks have been going up for 3 weeks now. Beautiful hike! And bonus, the road up to Mahogany Flat was regraded last Fall, so even a lowly passenger car can make it up to the trailhead! (One or two significant rains, and the road condition will change ... or even a bunch of 4wd vehicles using too much power.)

Charleston still has a little snow on the South Loop: the last half mile to Griffith Pass is messy postholing. Someone needs to go up with snowshoes and beat out that last section. Beyond the pass it is easy going.

Do it!! I would suggest going from Maghony rather than the Basin due to the extreme heat during that time of the year. Did the Magohny hike last March and there was zero snow until we got about 1.5 miles from the summit, then it was knee deep. We had no crampons but did have treking poles which helped a lot. The last few miles are filled with a ton of switchbacks. It may be just a hike but I would say that it is a difficult one at that. It's not like you're hiking on flat ground for 14 miles. Road up to Maghony is good, I have a Honda Element and had no problem getting there. The best thing to do is camp out at Maghony get up early tackle the Peak and enjoy the day. You can also hit Rogers and Bennett Peaks on the way with a slight detour for each peak. We skipped them because we were crunched for time. It was a great hike and you should conquer it while your in the surronding area for sure. Below is my trip report, enjoy!!

http://www.summitpost.org/telescope-peak/782804

> Charleston still has a little snow on the South Loop: the last half mile to Griffith Pass is messy postholing.

North loop is clear up to the Kyle Canyon rim then patchy snow until Devils Thumb.

There's still snow in the avalanche chutes on the face of Charleston- figure another week or two till those are gone.
(There were footprints of someone having risked a crossing, but they were dicier than I felt comfortable with)

Like Doug said, access to Telescope is looking good. We drove up to Mahogany Flat two days ago. Easy, dry drive. A FWD compact car made it up. Slowly, but made it.

We didn't hike it, but several people were returning and said it was a nice, easy hike. No issues. Beautiful weather too; highs that day in the high 50s at MF. There was very little snow visible from any of the surrounding views.