"Started on the Lakes Trail at about 6:30 AM and ascended at a decent pace to Panther Gap and past the trail sign to Alta Meadow. Covered the first ~4.5 miles in about 2 hours, and spent the next 2 hours on the last section of the hike. I'd heard reports of a little snow above about 10,200 feet, but there was hardly any left on the mountain after a hot week. I passed two hikers on their way up somewhere around 9,000-10,000 feet, and then passed one other solo hiker not much farther up. There were many irritating flies and bugs which had come out after the melting snow. The little snow that remained tended to gather on the trail switchbacks above 10,400 ft so I took a more direct approach up to the summit. I was thrilled to reach the peak and took a look at Pear Lake, below, before climbing up to the summit register and benchmark. I didn't spend much time at the top because the flies were bothering me and it was already getting warm. I came down quickly and was happy to get below some trees for shade. I saw many other hikers on their way up but I was relieved to be on my way down on such a hot day. This was my first big hike for the season and the descent was tough for me - I've neve..." — Fandral • Jun 22, 2024

"Wow! I know this hike gets extremely crowded in the summer, but in the winter/ early spring, you can’t drive straight to the rock, and half to hike 4 miles in the snow. I was the only one up there along with my mom and it was unbelievably gorgeous. I can’t recommend this hike enough. Go up around sunset time if possible!" — JohnL • Apr 3, 2024

"I started out at 7 am when I was gonna drive to Fresno, I decided to give Big Baldy a try because I was recommended this hike by the rangers. Great weird trees. Many benchmarks are on the summit. Sorry if all the photos are upside down." — lcnguyen • Aug 10, 2021

"Hiked with Jordan, took a quick run up this before we left Sequoia. Very busy trail, had to stop and wait a few times for other folks to pass as it is so narrow. Tremendous payoff at the top in terms of views. There was a prescribed burn in the area so it was a bit hazy. Was upset to see multiple tourists ducking through the hand rails to take photos and crawl around closer to the end of the point at the top. Doin’ it for the ‘gram, I suppose. Glad to see no one got hurt..." — kellieirene • Oct 19, 2019

"From Twin lakes I headed up to Silliman pass and then followed the long north ridge over to Mt. Silliman. The ridge has a gnarly class 3/4 notch. I climbed it no problem, but on my way back I avoided it by dropping down to the small lakes on the east side of the ridge. Once at Mt. Silliman I had to traverse around it to it's east side where I found a chute that would take me to the south slopes. Unfortunately it was still filled with snow/ice, but I was able to get up it. From there it was an easy walk up to the summit. The views from the top were HUGE!! You can see so much of the Sierra Nevada range from up there. " — DerekJayRichardson • Sep 30, 2019