3 miles of hiking • 500' elevation gain •
A short day hike between school runs to see the dogwoods in bloom.
We parked in the South parking lot off of State Highway A. Following some recent rain the trail conditions were fairly wet though not as muddy as on our hike here a couple of week ago. All the ephemeral creeks we saw had running water in them.
We decided to go anti-clockwise around the Silver trail, which involves a couple of 200' ascents one fairly steep and the other very long, rough and rocky. The worst part of the hike was the steep descent down from the top of the first big climb. The recent rain had washed a lot of the gravel out, but there was still enough left to make the descent very difficult. We were both glad to have our hiking poles.
On top of the ridge I photographed a tree that had been struck a glancing blow by lightning, we'll have to see if it survives.
We took it easy and got around in two hours including a stop for lunch and several stops to take pictures - that left just enough time to visit some flea markets on the way back to pick up the kids.
