The smooth trail led through the redwood forest. The temerature was chilly, and the trail always stayed shady, despite the blue skies above...
The smooth trail led through the redwood forest. The temerature was chilly, and the trail always stayed shady, despite the blue skies above...
I hiked quickly, jogging occasionally, and then realized I was just staring at the trail, instead of up at the trees. I stopped for some pics...
A look through the green and brownish-red forest...
While jogging a stretch of trail, something caught my eye, and I quickly stopped and turned back to find a BANANA SLUG crawling across the trail. I was quite happy to see my first B-slug in 24 years (since a field trip in these mountains as a kid). The slug I remembered as a kid was twice as big as this one, but then again, I was twice as small 24 years ago. The pic with my foot in it is to give you frame of reference for the size of it. It actually tried to pull it's head in to hide, when I made noises trying to take a picture...
The 5.5 mile hike on the Sunset Trail was not very exciting, mostly redwood forest with several small bridges over streams. There was one open area, pictured. In 1hr 40 min, I had reached the first waterfall on the Berry Creek Trail...
When I brought out my DSLR, everything was blurry through the lens. However the pictures came out crisp, so it must have been some condensation on the eye-piece. I had to trust my auto-focus the rest of the day...
The trail descended past some tiered waterfalls. I used my tripod for the shot with me...
One section of trail was very steep, right along the water's edge. The rock was wet, from the splash of the falls. The hand rail was vital. After three sections of waterfalls, the trail flattened out again...
This trail, along the creek, was very chilly (probably upper 40s and humid). I stopped for a snack, and took pictures along the way. The trail was gorgeously green...
Moss covered all sorts of stuff. I started passing many people traveling in the opposite direction in this stretch. Had only seen 6 people on the trail in the first 6 miles of the hike...
While keeping a quick pace on the trail, a caught a glimpse of something yellow to my left, and found another BANANA SLUG!
I was expecting to find the next trail junction soon, but ran into another waterfall, the biggest yet! A couple photographers with tripods were setup on the viewing platform. I fought the mist that built up on my lens, and took a few pics, playing with settings to capture the waterfall in different ways...
The trail junction was just past the waterfall. It was 4 miles back to the park headquarters. I took some pics of the waterfall from a view point through the forest...
The path back, was gorgeous, and I passed lots of people who were headed for the falls...
Made it back to the car 4hr 8 min after my start. On my drive back to town, I stopped at a few vista areas in Castle Rock State Park, and walked out a ways on some trails, looking for views. I was happy to catch a glimpse of the ocean a couple of times.
The ocean can be seen in the 1st pic. These pics were taken at vista areas in Castle Rock park, during my drive back...