California - Palm Springs - Murray Hill Loop

A beautiful loop over Murray Hill.

There are 2 parking options.
The one on Araby and one at Earl Henderson.
The Earl Henderson is by far the best, always enough room.
The Araby parking can be quite busy, as this is the way up to the Bob Hope House.

Take Araby drive, once past the sandy wash, park on the left, just out of the wash in the sand.

Start hiking, left along the wash.
At the brown sign, turn left, cross the road and after 150 yards, you will see the huge Earl Henderson trailhead sign.
At the next marked crossing, take Shannon.

This is the start of the climb, mostly following a rim, that will end at Murray Hill.

Take the Wildhorse trail to the left at the second crossing.

Follow the Wildhorse all the way up to the rim until you meet the Clara B trail.
Take the Clara B Trail up to the summit.

At the summit there is a nice view and picnic tables.

Going down, the trail leads along the steep hillside.

A bit scary when you are afraid of heights, but the trail is excellent and wide enough.

At the end of the Clara B trail, there is another big trailhead sign.
You need to turn, left across the wash.
But the easier way is going right and follow the wash a bit, until the trail turns left into the wash.
Up the wash a bit and take the steep jeep (?) trial to the right.
Follow this jeep trail until you meet the Araby trail.

Going down, past the Bob Hope House (Mushroom), you will end up along a trailer park.
Keep left and keep the trailer park to your right.
Close to the Araby parking, turn a bit to the left, cross the private road and pick up the unmarked trail on the other side.

The trail is on the left side of the wash, but do not enter the wash.
Follow it back to the car.

Pictures


Hiking time: 4 Hour, 35 Minutes return, but when you aren't in excellent shape you may take a while longer, it's a lot of climbing.

Warning: When you are afraid of heights, some parts of the hike, may get a bit uncomfortable, as the trail leads over rims with steep canyons on one or both sides.
But the trail is in excellent condition, so this shouldn't be too much of a problem.

The Clara B trail is not recommended in the first half of the year, but it's not prohibited. This is a Bighorn protection measure.

But .. we were already close to the hill when we encountered the sign.

Murray Hill is a hill, but the terrain is quite rocky and it feels like a mountain top.