Читать книгу 101 Hikes in Northern California. Exploring Mountains, Valleys, and Seashore онлайн

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Old-growth dreams: an ancient redwood tree at Vicente Flat

To Reach the Trailhead Take Hwy. 1 to Kirk Creek Campground, 38 miles south of Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park and 36 miles north of Hearst Castle. The trailhead is on the east side of Hwy. 1, across the road from the campground.

Description From Hwy. 1 (0.0/190'), Vicente Flat Trail quickly climbs a series of switchbacks past coastal scrub. Flowering lupines, poppies, sticky monkeyflowers, and sagebrush highlight the hillside in spring. In 0.3 mile you cross a minor gully, head toward a minor saddle, then turn north across rolling grasslands and coastal chaparral. After crossing a gully choked with invasive blackberry and broom species, listen for water trickling from a nearby spring (0.9/700').

The grade steepens as the trail passes scattered yuccas, spiny testaments to the aridity of these exposed slopes. You next reach a ridge (1.4/1,000') offering spectacular views of the convergence of land and sea. Continuing, the trail quickly enters the Ventana Wilderness and reaches shade beneath a canopy of oaks, madrones, and bays. You follow the ridgeline through four gullies and past a dense band of redwoods, then climb steeply to a prominent ridge (2.9/1,610'), where exceptional views entice you to linger. To the east, 5,155-foot Cone Peak (ssss1) and its neighbor, double-notched Twin Peak, loom over Hare and Limekiln creeks. Hare Canyon is one of the state’s deepest gorges; Limekiln Canyon boasts the steepest coastal slope in the Lower 48.