I wasted about 45 minutes trying to find where the trail started. There looked to be a trail by the sign for the Manzanita Campground, but it disappeared into thick brush almost immediately. I figured that maybe the trail got washed out, so I bushwhacked up about 150 vertical feet before giving up on that route. I had to walk up and down the highway for a few minutes before I found the real trail.

The first half turned out to be very pleasant. The scorched ponderosas are kind of solemn, but the rich, green ground-cover, the lively chirping of birds and the blooming wildflowers more than made up for it. However, the top half was overgrown and very buggy. The views going up were decent, but at the pass, there was so much foliage that I couldn't see anything, plus the bugs were swarming me to an unbearable degree. I'm glad I did it, but this is definitely not my top choice trail in the area.