Читать книгу 101 Hikes in Southern California. Exploring Mountains, Seashore, and Desert онлайн

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When you come upon an old roadbed at the bottom, stay left, cross the creek, and continue downstream on a narrowing trail along the shaded east bank. Curve left when you reach a grove of fantastically twisted live oaks at the confluence of two stream forks. On the edge of this grove, an overflow pipe coming out of a tank discharges tepid spring water. Continue another 200 yards down along the now-lively brook to the trail’s abrupt end at The Grotto, a narrow, spooky constriction flanked by sheer volcanic-rock walls. If your sense of balance is good, you can clamber over gray rock ledges and massive boulders fallen from the canyon walls—just as thousands of Boy Scouts have done in the past. At one spot you can peer cautiously into a gloomy cavern, where you more easily hear than see the subterranean stream. Watermarks on the boulders above are evidence that this part of the gorge probably supports a two-tier stream in times of flood.

When you’ve had your fill of adventuring, return by the same route, uphill almost the whole way.