Strawberry Creek

Strawberry Creek forms on the southern slope of San Jacinto Peak where water from rainfall, snowmelt, and spring discharge gathers. The creek flows down Marion Mountain through the city of Idyllwild, under Highway 74, and eventually becomes the San Jacinto River. The area burned in the Cranston fire of 2018, but the canyon itself was left relatively unscathed. The creek is rife with lizards and wildflowers in June and July and is often sheltered by live oak and sycamore trees. Water runs nearly year-round, but spring to early summer conditions will be cool and refreshing. The Idyllwild Arts jazz festival that used to be held in the summer concluded in 2024.

With a car shuttle, the canyon approach is entirely downhill. You can find legal parking on Idyllmont Rd or Double View Dr. just south of the creek, then descend down to it via use trails. The less steep approach is to park off the road before reaching the bridge and passing onto Idyllwild Arts property (whether their road is a public right of way is unknown but could be investigated). If you choose to park before reaching the bridge, do not block the overgrown driveways (one driveway in particular is a rescue cache). Walk down the road until you turn off, pass across the school property through the woods and down to the creek. The canyon can be very hot during the summer. A water filter may be advisable to keep pack weight down. You will be scrambling and boulder hopping for many hours and miles; in truth there isn’t any “easy walking” after you descend into the creek. Bring ample webbing as the majority of anchors are directly in the watercourse and comprised of pinches between rocks. A climber's nut tool is recommended as a way to clean and access anchors safely. Rope pulls are generally poor. Bring lots of rope in case you stick one in the canyon.

Following the final rappel, the watercourse grows wider as it joins an adjacent drainage. Exit via 1.2 miles of boulder hopping down to the bridge. When you reach the bridge, exit the watercourse to your waiting vehicles. Since 2020 it would appear that the watercourse has become significantly more overgrown. It may be wise to avoid the traditional exit until after the next large water event due to poison oak, stinging nettle, and chaparral. An alternate exit without the need for a shuttle was demonstrated in June 2020. Immediately after the end of the technical section, instead of turning south, turn northeast and scramble up a small gully to the east (right) of the overgrown canyon that intersects with the main canyon. It's steep going at first but eases up later with hiking across fairly level ground until you meet the service road to the north. This exit took 1:40 to the road and then 0:30 of road walking to get back to the Lower Parking area. Additionally this should avoid issues at lower elevation with Grow issue.