Trip report
May 21, 2024 — Lightning Gulch Point and Onyx Peak are a couple of minor summits east of Sugarloaf Mountain within the San Bernardino Mountains. Amanda and I decided to hike these from Onyx Summit off CA-38. Neither peak is particularly interesting, but we enjoyed the hike to both nonetheless.
Starting west toward Lightning Gulch Point first, we crossed the busy highway and located the somewhat difficult-to-find trail, which snaked up the slope steeply for a bit until turning into old doubletrack. This was easy to follow as it continued within the trees through uninspiring terrain. There were a couple of small hills to hike up and over along the way and a couple of small lookout points. Eventually Lightning Gulch Point came into view. After a final dip, the doubletrack climbs steeply to the summit, where we enjoyed some very nice panoramic views towards Mount San Gorgonio and Sugarloaf Mountain.
Back at the trailhead, we started up toward Onyx Peak. We could have just taken the dirt road all the way up, but since the Pacific Crest Trail parallels this road, we decided to follow that instead. The views were quite nice along this section of trail, though it was short-lived since the PCT intersected the forest road just over a mile later. We followed the road up to Onyx Peak's summit, which offered some cool views of the desert to the east. You could either backtrack the same way or descend off-trail directly west down the steep slope.