Need I say more? A mountainside of prickly pear cactus!
This hike was 6 miles south of Carmel, in Garapatta State Park. Guess what Garapatta means? It means "tick" in Spanish. Lovely place. The trail guide said this 7 mile hike was for "serious hikers." No, not serious, just insane! The trails were not maintained and were extremely steep, 20 - 30% grades, full of rocks and loose soil. These pictures are not in the right order, of course, but it started at the coast and went up to 1450 feet. The views would have been spectacular had it not been foggy. Every hill we saw and thought was the summit, had a higher hill beyond it and the trail just kept ascending.
Could this cactus be native? Would anyone actually plant it?
Starting out at the base of the mountain range. See that peak? Not the top. 4 peaks beyond that one.
Near the end of the trail it descended into a creek canyon (Sobranes Creek) and there we saw Redwoods. Whooppee!
Ever heard of noxious weeds? What better combination than cactus and poison oak!
The view from the summit. We had to climb down into the first valley, up the range again and down into the 2nd valley. We had enough uphill and were ready for a little downhill . . .
And down we went.
The last valley below.
Now we were cursing downhill. Couldn't we go uphill? Ouch, our legs were like jelly. And it continued for MILES!!
This old barn was the coolest thing on the hike!
A view of the coast from the start of the hike.
We looked back fondly on this uphill stretch.
Another view of the downhill trek.
At least the fog kept it cool. Curses on Monterey County hiking!
This hike was 6 miles south of Carmel, in Garapatta State Park. Guess what Garapatta means? It means "tick" in Spanish. Lovely place. The trail guide said this 7 mile hike was for "serious hikers." No, not serious, just insane! The trails were not maintained and were extremely steep, 20 - 30% grades, full of rocks and loose soil. These pictures are not in the right order, of course, but it started at the coast and went up to 1450 feet. The views would have been spectacular had it not been foggy. Every hill we saw and thought was the summit, had a higher hill beyond it and the trail just kept ascending.
Could this cactus be native? Would anyone actually plant it?
Starting out at the base of the mountain range. See that peak? Not the top. 4 peaks beyond that one. 
Near the end of the trail it descended into a creek canyon (Sobranes Creek) and there we saw Redwoods. Whooppee! 
Ever heard of noxious weeds? What better combination than cactus and poison oak! 
The view from the summit. We had to climb down into the first valley, up the range again and down into the 2nd valley. We had enough uphill and were ready for a little downhill . . .
And down we went.
The last valley below.
Now we were cursing downhill. Couldn't we go uphill? Ouch, our legs were like jelly. And it continued for MILES!!
This old barn was the coolest thing on the hike!
A view of the coast from the start of the hike.
We looked back fondly on this uphill stretch.
Another view of the downhill trek.
At least the fog kept it cool. Curses on Monterey County hiking! 
2 comments:
hahaha...OUCH!
I have to say that it looks gorgeous from up there. But, umm you can never know the good, if youve never known the bad, right?
Next time.
Meanwhile check out MY lastest hike lol. http://gailandmike.blogspot.com/2008/10/i-had-been-wanting-to-catch-train-down.html
That sounds awful! How are your legs doing today? Cactus and Poison Oak are not good individually let alone together! Curses is right!
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