View from summit of Mount Baden-Powell, San Gabriel Mountains, California
Nikon D600 : 24mm : shutter 1/100 : aperture f/14 : ISO 100
Mount Baden-Powell is one of the must do local mountains for all SoCal peak- baggers. Named for the founder of the Boy Scouts, there is a monument commemorating Baden Powell at the summit.
This view is facing northeast, back to the summit ridge below and out to the desert. I wanted to encompass the ridge and the ancient limber pine clinging tenaciously to the slope of the summit. If you look carefully, in the gap in the trees, lower left on the ridge, you can see a man standing on the trail.
At 9,399 feet (2.8648m) in elevation, Mount Baden-Powell is the 4th highest peak of the San Gabriel Range. (Mount San Antonio, locally known as Mount Baldy, is the highest at 10,064 feet (3,068 m). The Vincent Gap Trail leads up a set of unrelenting switchbacks from Highway 2, through a forest of Jeffrey Pine, Ponderosa Pine, Lodgepole Pine, Incense-cedar, and finally, an ancient forest of Limber Pine. The highlight of the limber pines is the “Wally Waldron” tree (found on the ridge up to the summit) thought to be over 1,500 years old.
The hike through the forest was fragrant with pine and cedar heating up in the sun. The ridge to the summit, with it’s over 3000′ drop off was spectacular. On top the winds were freezing but the 360 degree views were worth every step. Views extend from the flat desert plain, through mountain peaks and on to the ocean.