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

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From the divide, turn north and follow Carmel River Trail toward Pine Valley. The trail slowly descends, crossing over the usually dry headwaters of the Carmel River, and then eventually levels off. As the gradient eases, sandstone cliffs appear to your right, water trickles audibly off to your left, and ponderosa pines begin to rise from open meadows.

For thousands of years, Pine Valley was home to the Esselen people and provided them with fertile hunting, gathering, and living grounds. The Esselen may have used fire to clear underbrush and maintain the pine stands and broad meadow, where deer, rabbits, antelope, and even bears once commonly grazed. In the adjacent forest, doves, quails, and other game birds flocked beneath the abundant canopy of oaks, bays, pines, and madrones. Wild roses grow in dense thickets on the east edge of the valley, perhaps cultivated by the Esselen for straight, strong arrow shafts. Beneath the sandstone cliffs, women took harvested acorns from the surrounding oak woodlands and ground the nutritious meat into flour. Their mortar holes still pepper sandstone outcrops just downstream from the Pine Valley–Pine Ridge Trail junction.