Hike Martinez Mountain and Sheep Mountain San Bernardino National Forest, CA

Feb 25, 2024 — Emerging prominently from the desert, the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument is mostly known for its proximity to Palm Springs and inclusion of Mount San Jacinto. Farther south is the lesser-known and lower elevation Martinez Mountain, a peak with respectable prominence that mostly just blends into the horizon when viewed from below. It's a nice summit with great views overlooking Coachella Valley. Martinez Mountain is often hiked together with Sheep Mountain nearby, which adds some additional route-finding to the day. Chris and I parked at the Cactus Spring Trailhead and hiked along a dirt road that took us from the parking lot to the start of the trail. We descended past an old dolomite mine and through the lumpy hills, progressing downward through a wide drainage into Horse Thief Creek. The trail was in excellent shape and seems to receive plenty of hikers, though few continue all the way to Martinez Mountain, the creek their more likely turn-around point.

We filled up water at the currently flowing Horse Thief Creek before ascending the steep trail on the east side. Looking back at the three-ish miles we'd covered so far, we could see the drainage we had come down from the trailhead and noted that an extra 800+ vertical gain would be required on the way back. The Cactus Spring Trail stayed high for a short time in order to escape the eroded hills before dropping into a sandy wash. This wash slowly ascends until it emerges into open desert with a view of Martinez Mountain ahead. The route we wanted to take leads to the southwestern ridge on the peak's shoulder. We progressed quickly through less-interesting terrain, passing the dry Cactus Spring without even noticing it.

As the Cactus Spring Trail began to lose its form, cairns helped guide the way through the brushy desert, up a major wash, and then south into a gully. According to maps, this is still the official Cactus Spring Trail, but it's clearly not traveled nearly as much as the first few miles. Some Class 2 brought us through this steep gully just to a point on the ridge just below 5200'. A social trail continued east along the ridge, very easy to follow until reaching the bouldery ridge crest. It's wide enough that a single route isn't obvious, and there are many ways up, some of which are marked well with cairns. It seemed like most cairned routes were really just to help avoid brush or larger boulder clusters, since it's pretty hard to get too mixed up once on the ridgeline. It's likely you'll pull a Class 3 move on occasion to overcome such obstacles, but the ascent can be kept Class 2/2+ if you poke around enough. The brush was minimal, but did add some slight use of brainpower to avoid at times, and I managed to punch a large prickly pear cactus. Chris laughed at me the entire time he aided in pulling out its hairy barbs.

Martinez Mountain wasn't far once we reached the top of the bouldery ridge at around 6400', but there's still some navigating to do. I recommend sticking high along the extended, flat summit area. The summit block came into view, but reaching it was a bit convoluted. A social trail exists to reach it, but it's often hard to follow. After weaving through various washes and lumps, we reached the final push to the summit. Some Class 2 scrambling on large boulders brought us to the summit block, a fun-looking pillar. A crawl-through space led to the start of the crux. Class 3 brought us up the left of two pillars, followed by a ledge wrap-around, and another Class 3 set of moves through a short chimney led to the summit.

We could see the uninspired form of Sheep Mountain below, but decided we'd be disappointed if we skipped it. Some parties seem to drop off Martinez Mountain via a northestern gully and then navigate through the lumpy desert, but we opted to backtrack until we could find a good spot to leave the Cactus Spring Trail and ascend north. We really liked our route since it felt efficient and made use of the trail, rather than going cross-country unnecessarily. After leaving the trail, we gained a slope with cacti littered all over it, none of which was too much of a hassle to avoid. The slope continued to a wide bowl on the south side of Sheep Mountain, which we crossed through to gain the peak's southeastern ridge. It was a straightforward walk along the ridge from here to gain the summit of Sheep Mountain, where the views were similar to Martinez Mountain, but less expansive.

To descend Sheep Mountain, we took one of the standard routes hikers often take, which follows the meandering western ridge down into a drainage. Cairns helped some of the time, but they were sparse. A decent social trail led out of this drainage and into the foothills above, where we picked up a wash that led nearly back to the Cactus Spring Trail.