Last night we went on a full moon night hike with a group of our friends up Garnet Peak in the Laguna Mountains. The hike starts at the Penny Pines trailhead off Sunrise Highway and heads north on the pct to a side trail that goes up Garnet Peak.

We got to the trailhead at about 9 pm and it was unusually warm for a December night in the mountains about 65 degrees. The moon was bright as we started down the trail and quickly came to the edge of the mountain where the trail skirts a drop off to the desert floor below. As we hiked along the trail it was so bright that our shadows were cast on the ground in front of us. Our flashlights and headlamps never had to be turned on for the length of the hike.

As we made it to the side trail for Garnet Peak the trail quickly climbed to the summit and we were rewarded with a gorgeous view of the desert below, lights from the windmill farm in the distance and some lights from the city on the western horizon. We celebrated with some Sculpin that Bill packed up in bottles and some in cans that I packed up. I made Chelsea some tea on our alcohol stove and we enjoyed our view.

After making it back to our cars we headed down the hill to Ramona and got some Mexican food at Mananas. We actually didn’t make it home until about 2 am which was okay because neither of us had to be to work until the afternoon. Overall it was a great hike with a great group of friends and we would love to do it again.