Up on the ridgtop, turning south for the ridgetop traverse down to Santa Cruz. Hot and exposed the whole way.

Looking back north at the southern slopes of San Rafael. From here, it looks as if the roadbed cut back and might provide an easier route to San Rafael Mountain than dipping unnecessarily deep into the McKinley bowl.

Santa Cruz Peak draws closer. The peak on the left is "Bump 5484" as described in the Sierra Club guide.

Bump 5485 and Santa Cruz from even further along the ridge, which had decended unevenly southward. You can now see the old roadbed cutting across the side of Santa Cruz, though the use trail would travel above this route.

The roadbed arrived at Bump 5484 and veered left. A maintained trail headed right away from the roadbed and cut across toward the 5484/Santa Cruz saddle. Once off the roadbed, the trail became significantly less well graded and even required a little rock scrambling in places.

At the Bump 5484/Santa Cruz saddle and ready to start heading up to the summit.

An use trail headed into the tree cover and traveled roughty up the spine of the summit ridge. This is the alternate route described in the HPS guide (the main roadbed route is an overgrown mess and is definately less preferable than this route). If you manage to stay on the trail, there is a mostly brush free route to the summit.

On the false summit and about to head over to the true summit. My shins were rubbed pretty raw by this point and I was somewhat regretting not wearing long pants (though it was way too hot for that)

A standard HPS red can summit registry. Lots of entries from Mars Bonfire (who has completed the entire HPS list 8 times).