Mount San Antonio's sometimes snow-capped peaks are visible on clear days and dominate the view of the Los Angeles Basin skyline.

The summit is accessible via a number of connecting ridges along hiking trails from the north, east, south, and southwest.

[10] East of the summit is Mount Harwood, which is in turn connected by a narrow ridge, "The Devil's Backbone," to a pass known as the Baldy Notch.

South of the resort, and connected to its ski lift by an asphalt road, lies Mt Baldy Village.

When the slide occurred, it dammed the river, whose depth built up until the water was released catastrophically, forming a slot canyon which now holds some of the area's few good rock climbing routes (difficulty 5.11, sport).

The San Antonio Dam was completed in 1956, after a pause due to World War II, in an effort to prevent future floods as severe as the one in 1938, which damaged the low-elevation, highly populated areas below.

The lower land area of the mountain consists of an ecological community known as yellow pine forest.

Wildflower species include Galium parishii, San Gabriel alumroot, gray monardella, pumice alpinegold, Parry's pussypaws, Nuttall's sandwort, and caulanthus.

Unlike animals of this subspecies in the Mojave Desert, those in the San Gabriel Mountains cannot be legally hunted and need not compete with aggressive feral burros for food or water.

[16] Grizzly bears (Ursus arctos), featured on the state flag, were once common in the Transverse Ranges, but were driven to extinction in California in the late 19th century, with one of the last animals in the San Gabriels being shot in 1894 by Walter L. Richardson.

[15] Merriam's chipmunk (Neotamias merriami) inhabits the San Gabriels in low-elevation areas containing manzanita, below the yellow pine forest community.

Rodents found at higher elevations in the San Gabriels include lodgepole chipmunks (Neotamias speciosus), all the way up to the tree line,[15] and the California ground squirrel (Otospermophilus beecheyi) in the yellow pine forest on the south side of the range.

The "Baldy Bowl" south of the summit is often climbed with crampons and ice ax, depending on snow conditions.

Avalanches and rock fall are both hazards, and deaths or rescues from accidents along Devil's Backbone are a common occurrence.

[22] There are also a number of summer routes to the summit involving cross-country travel or scrambling,[23] and it is possible to rappel down the canyon of San Antonio Creek.

It marks the approximate halfway point on the Ski Hut Trail, at an elevation of 8,200 ft.[26] It has a fully-equipped kitchen, piped water, solar lighting, a wood-burning stove, dormitory loft beds for about sixteen visitors, and an outhouse with a view.

[27] The hut is located at the base of Baldy Bowl, recognized as a superb skiing area in the early 1930s.

The Ski Mountaineers section of the Sierra Club,[28] formed in 1935, was granted permission by the U.S. Forest Service to construct a hut in this location.

Since 1965, each Labor Day, the San Antonio Canyon Town Hall has sponsored a "Run to the Top" on Mt.

Baldy in which a 8-mile (13 km) course over roads and trails ends at the main peak for an approximately 4,000-foot (1,200 m) elevation gain.

Because the canyon is deep, its north-facing slope retains snow late into the spring, and in 1859 Victor Beaudry and Damien Marchessault built an icehouse there.

In 1875 an army surveying party made the first recorded ascent to the mountain's summit, via Lytle Creek, and estimated the height of the peak.

Frank Keyes converted Dell's Camp from a mining support station into a rental resort.

Early mountain guide William B. Dewey led parties of guests to the summit on a loop corresponding to the present-day Mt.

Access to the upper canyon was impeded by the precarious nature of the trail going over the Hog Back slide, but by the turn of the century Dell's Camp nevertheless entertained as many as a hundred guests in a weekend.

Charles Baynham built a second camp nearby in 1907,[contradictory] and in the following year the canyon became accessible by automobile.

[56] Former Yosemite concessionaire Foster Curry, his wife Ruth Curry, and Ruth's second husband, movie star Edmund Burns, turned Camp Baldy into a playground for affluent residents of Los Angeles, with a swimming pool, casino, and a dance pavilion.

Baldy Notch to the summit, a route which had previously been narrow and dangerous due to the precipitous drops on one, or in some areas both, sides.

During a snow storm on March 2, 1949, two Marine Corps Hellcat fighter planes were flying in formation in an instrument training exercise when they crashed into the west side of the summit's south ridge.

[citation needed] On 13 January 2023, the English actor Julian Sands, a dedicated mountaineer, went missing while hiking in Mount San Antonio.