Momyer Creek Trail to San Bernardino East Peak

This Momyer Creek Trail is a rugged and challenging 15 mile round trip to the 10,691 foot San Bernardino EAST Peak, with an elevation gain of 5,251 feet. Don’t get this confused with the San Bernardino Pk that leaves out of Angelus Oaks.
On this trail, my dog Sammy & I had to cross 38 downed trees… One Way! And yes, I counted them on my 2^nd trip. These trees and the extra 562 feet of elevation gain made this Momyer Creek Trail more challenging than the trail to the 10,649′ San Bern Pk. The East Pk is also harder to find detailed information on it. Do this trail in the cooler months since most of the trail is on the S. East side of the mountain in the open sun. And you will definitely want to wear long pants because there are a LOT of thorny Chaparral on the upper narrow trail. November is perfect, even walking through the thousands of slippery acorns on the trail.
To get to the Momyer Creek trailhead you can use the address listed on this site, just as you go to San Gorgonio Vivian Creek Trail. When you reach the SR 38 hairpin bend, the trailhead is exactly 2.8 miles straight ahead on Valley of the Falls Drive. Just after the Fallsvale School sign on the right, start looking for the trail sign on the left/​North side of the road.
From the parking lot, head down towards the picnic table behind the trail sign. Look across the wash for a brown ‘Wilderness’ sign and head for that. After the sign, the trail heads to the right under the oak trees and into the open switchbacks. The trail is easy to follow and at 2.5 miles/7,088′ you will see a ‘San Gorgonio Wilderness’ sign. Then in 2 tenths of a mile just after a clearing of broken fallen trees keep alert and look to your left up the hill about 12 feet off the trail for the ‘San Bernardino Peak/​Alger Creek’ sign at 2.7 miles. This is easy to miss, which I did on my first trip.
The main trail goes straight towards Alger Creek, but head UP the hill to the left of the sign, due North. The trail is still easy to follow but becomes more rugged, STEEPER and narrow with the thorny bushes. At 4 miles you pass through a beautiful Manzanita meadow with the view of the East Peak taunting you straight ahead. At 5.8 miles you reach the rocky section. On my first trip Sammy & I took a detour at 6.3 miles/10,180′, to the left straight up the last 500′ of elevation gain over the rocky boulders to the peak. I probably will never do this again with my dog! The correct way is to stay on the trail as it heads away from the peak, until you reach a HUGE fallen tree that crosses the trail at 6.7 miles. Do not cross this tree. The trail heads to the left and back to the west towards the peak. The trail becomes harder to follow, but it will head up the hill to the right and meet up with the San Bernardino Divide Trail at 7.0 miles. There will be a Forrest Falls, Trail Fork Springs, Camp Angelus junction sign there, go left towards Camp Angelus. In 0.4 mile you will see a cairn, head to the left up the last tenth of a mile. And no, the East Pk is not marked, all you will find is an ammo box chained to a rock and the beautiful views of San Gorgonio & San Jacinto to the east and Mt Baldy to the west.
Instead of heading back the same way, Sammy & I traversed the San Bernardino Divide Trail and headed down the Falls Creek Trail, making this a 20.6 mile hike instead of 15 miles. To do the loop, when you get back to the San Bern Divide/​Forrest Falls junction sign, stay straight and head towards Trail Fork Springs. Here are some total trip mile markers for the loop:
* 8.2 miles — Reach the Dollar Lake Saddle/​Trail Fork Springs
sign. Go to Dollar Lake Saddle.
* 9.0 miles — Anderson Flats Campsite sign.
* 9.3 miles — Stay to the left of Shields Peak.
* 10.9 miles — High Mdw Springs Camp.
* 11.6 miles — Dollar Lake Saddle/​San Gorgonio/​Plumber
Mdw junction sign 10,000′. Head to Plumb Mdw.
* 12.8 miles — Plumber Mdw.
* 13.8 miles — Plumber Mdw/​Saxton Camp sign.
* 15.7 miles — Saxton/​Plumb Mdw/​Alger Creek/​Dobbs
junction sign.
* 17.1 miles — Alger Creek.
* 20.6 miles — Momyer Creek Trailhead.
** WHAT A GREAT LOOP!!!

When my hiking friends asked if I wanted to join them for a day’s hike at the San Bernandino peak, I was super stoked. Especially when she said, «you will LOVE it… it’s a beautiful chill hike!»
OMG I want to slap her!!!
I’m pretty active and fit for the most part AND have done many hikes (including the Incan Trail to Machu Picchu).
The hike to the peak and back at San Bernandino almost BROKE ME… I wanted to cry.
It is a 16-​mile hike (8-​miles up and 8-​miles down). We prepped days in advance for this hike. I got my camelback, hiking boots, hiking poles, heart rate monitor and protein bars. We woke up at 3am in order to start our hike promptly at 6am. The idea was to beat the heat as much as possible.
The first 2-​miles were brutal. I was huffing and puffing… the slowest one of them all. It leveled off sporadically but it was a consistent uphill. We took many water and snack breaks. Our group of 10 split up eventually as some of us slower hikers could not catch up with the faster ones.
At about 5 or 6 miles into the hike, I thought to myself «where the HECK is this peak at?!» It was brutal. You can’t see the actual peak at any one point from the hike going up. All I remembered was the trail kept going and going and going. When we did reached the bottom of the peak finally… it was confusing because there weren’t any signs anywhere.
I was OUT for 20 mins sprawled out on the ground. I could not talk to my friends. I was totally incapacitated. I had to take ibuprofen at that point for my lower back pain from carrying my camelback up the hill for 4 hours. We ate lunch and rested for about 30 mins at the peak.
**I ran out of water halfway through because I had a 2-​liter camelback. I recommend that you at least take 3-​liters**
We were super excited going down because our speed was twice as fast. And it only lasted for the first 4 miles. My toes started hurting gradually from going downhill even though I have really good quality hiking boots. It was also very hot. I remember running into a few people that told us, «you’re almost there just another 30 mins.» That was the biggest mistake ever because it tortured us. It took us another 1.5 hours to get to the parking lot. I was literally limping those last few miles. We completed our hike at under 9 hours.
My toes were KILLING me. I was crying at one point. When we got to the car, I had nasty blisters all around my toes and my heels. I was OUT for 5 days… could not work out whatsoever.
Anywho…HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
Other than above mentioned, it actually was a very BEAUTIFUL hike with picturesque mountains all around.