Читать книгу Afoot & Afield: Orange County. A Comprehensive Hiking Guide онлайн

74 страница из 92

trip 3.3 Emerald Vista Point

ssss1

Distance 4.6 miles (loop)

Hiking Time 2½ hours

Elevation Gain 800’

Difficulty Moderate

Trail Use Backpacking, cyclists, equestrians, good for kids

Best Times October–May

Agency CCSP

Permit CCSP parking fee required

DIRECTIONS Crystal Cove State Park’s visitor center and backcountry trailhead is located just east of the Pacific Coast Highway (Highway 1), 2 miles north of Laguna Beach and 3 miles south of Corona del Mar. The entrance driveway is well marked, and a traffic light has been installed here for safety. Follow the road as it veers right and passes the entrance station. Continue past Moro Campground and down the hill, then turn left (east) and drive to the trailhead parking near a picnic area at the end of the road.

On the most transparent winter days, the view from Emerald Vista Point spans more than 200 miles of Southern California coast and extends out to sea for a distance of 100 miles or more. Beyond Dana Point to the southeast, the low profile of San Diego’s Point Loma can be traced along the curving shoreline, while offshore the diminutive Coronado Islands (just south of the international border) barely rise above the ocean haze. Southwest and west stand two big islands, San Clemente and Santa Catalina, the former a gently rising blister on the ocean surface, the latter a bold headland sprawling across 25 degrees of ocean horizon. Over the top of the upthrust Palos Verdes peninsula and through the often murky Los Angeles Basin to the northwest, you can sometimes spy the Santa Monica Mountains and the faint blue coastline reaching west toward Santa Barbara.