Trip Report
Alpine Scramble - Red Mountain (Commonwealth Basin)
A weekday scramble up Red Mountain via the Commonwealth Trail.
Jim Griffing
- Tue, Sep 2, 2025
- Alpine Scramble - Red Mountain (Commonwealth Basin)
- Red Pass & Mountain (Commonwealth Basin)
- Scrambling
- Successful
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- Road suitable for all vehicles
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The Commonwealth Trail is in pretty good shape. There is some erosion in places and three stream crossings. At this time of year, the crossings were easy.
The scramble portion of Red Mountain goes up rock that is loose in many places. There are good holds, but one needs to test them before committing to put weight on them. Down-climbing is probably more difficult than the trip up.
Three Mountaineers headed up Red Mountain early on a sunny Tuesday morning. We left the trailhead at about 7:50. There were other cars in the parking lot, but we only encountered two trail runners on the way up and two backpackers on the way down. The rest of the folks were probably traveling on the Pacific Crest Trail.
We left the Commonwealth Trail on an obvious boot path just above 4800'. We then scrambled up the red rocks following our instincts up the numerous use trails. We arrived at the summit after about three hours. (The blueberries and huckleberries might have slowed us down a little).
We ate lunch on the top and admired the views for about 30 minutes before heading back down. There were some bugs at the summit, but they were not too bothersome.
We got back to the trailhead before 2 PM. The trip was 6.3 miles with 2600' of gain in 6 hours (including our time at the top).