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Trip Report    

Day Hike - Dirty Harry's Balcony & East Balcony

Nice little jaunt on a Saturday morning!

Alex Negrila Alex Negrila
March 25, 2019
  • Road suitable for all vehicles

  • Trail mostly dry with some isolated patches of mud. Snow only on the last quarter mile especially on the off shoot trail towards the Balcony from the main DHPT, but rapidly melting with each passing day. I would expect it to be completely gone by next weekend at this rate. No traction devices necessary, snow was shallow and well compacted.

We got to the trailhead at 8am and starting early proved to be a good decision. We were the first party to get up to the Balcony and had it to ourselves for almost our entire  snack break. One couple showed up at the end, right on time to help take a group shot of all of us! While hiking back down we started running into more and more people (and puppies) heading up, and the TH parking lot was completely full around 11:30am when we got back there.

Trail was in pretty good shape. The hot weather of the past week has been quickly melting the snow and drying the trail (even just compared to Thursday when I did a pre-trip walk of the trail to check conditions). There was continuous snow only for the last quarter mile or so before the Balcony. Snow was pretty shallow but well compacted and with good footholds: no traction devices were necessary. It got slightly deeper (ankle deep in a few places) for the last hundred yards from the final fork off the main peak trail towards the Balcony. Some folks used poles and everybody did great on the final few steep rocky steps up to the Balcony.

Weather was overcast but warm and we managed to dodge the rain. All in all, a great little jaunt on a Saturday morning!