The view from atop the rocks near the summit of Suicide Peak ranks among the best on the Hundred Peaks list. You can see across Fern Valley to Lily Rock, an eagle's perch similar to the the 7500' crags of Suicide Rock, and into the town of Idyllwild, one-half mile straight down. Thirty of us climbed out of the fog that drifted into the village that morning, and emerged into a sparkling clear mountain scene. The clouds appeared as an ocean below us as we hiked the 3 mile, well graded route to the summit. Near the top the trail crosses Marion Creek, and we traded our city water for the refreshing taste of newly melted snow. Nearly an hour was spent at the lunch break, sunning ourselves on the cliffside boulders and taking photographs of each other poised on the crags in suicidal positions.
The return trip was made down the steep incline on the north face of the mountain. We slipped and slid down a narrow chute that eventually became a watered tributary of Strawberry Creek. Trees here grow close together; cedars, sugarpine, and fir, and you relish the feeling of isolation that the dense forest provides. We left the forest near Hamlen Park and hiked down the road back to our cars, impeding traffic along the way.
