Garrapata State Park . . . and a few geocaches

For quite a while now I have been wanting to finish seeking out all the geocaches in a state park that is a scant, oh, ten miles? south of here, yet feels like a world away.

The erstwhile loop

The park itself consists of various bits: a long(ish) redwood canyon with a rushing stream, a
"whaler's" knoll overlooking the Pacific, a beautiful beach (and a favorite spot for elopements),
and the ridges high above the redwood canyon. We have hiked the canyon, then up to a saddle, and back down the seaward Rocky Ridge Trail many, many times. It's not a long hike—a little under five miles round trip. But there's an 1,800-foot elevation gain, and after the lazy redwood canyon, the trail goes up right quick. It's definitely a workout.

Today, instead of heading up the canyon (which no longer has a loop option due to many years of trail neglect), we headed up the steep Rocky Ridge Trail—and then kept on going along ridges above the canyon. It was our first time back there, and it was glorious. Long views north to Monterey Bay, still-lingering wildflowers, lots of rocky outcroppings, and shorter views down into the canyon—when all that wasn't obscured by blowing fog. Which, actually, we didn't mind: it made for a beautifully cool hike. It is July, after all. How nice not to be blasted by heat.

Here are some photos I took.

Common madia (Madia elegans)—a tarweed

Dudleya sp.

I picked these geocaching "travelbugs" up in Chile and Salinas,
respectively, and I'm letting them "visit" caches that are too
small or remote to leave them in, just to keep their maps
interesting. Yes, it's a silly game. But it gets us out to
places like this, and that's why I like it.

David was busy looking at the hint while I
turned over the right rock to find the cache beneath.

There were redwood canyons up here too!

Looking north: yes, you can see Monterey Bay
waaaaay in the distance

Large-flowered linanthus (Leptosiphon grandiflorus)

More redwoods, with sticky monkeyflower (Mimulus aurantiacus)

I believe this is a sticky snapdragon
(Antirrhinum multiflorum), and it is blurry
only because the wind wouldn't settle down—
but it was so pretty, with the pearly everlasting
(Anaphalis margaritacea) in the background.

Looking west toward the Pacific from high on the ridge

That ridge in the background? That's where we were today.
But we had to go the long way round.

Darkling beetle amour

Random folding chair, by the barn, just because

It was a great day, and in the end we found four of the seven caches we were looking for. One hadn't been found since January 2016. In the meantime, the Soberanes Fire swept through this area, but apparently it stayed farther south, because this ridge didn't seem to be affected until (maybe) we got to the last cache, which we failed to find. Yeah, I'll just go ahead and blame the conflagration. Why not? Who's gonna prove me wrong? (Well, the next finder maybe . . .)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today's MoCo Covid-19 numbers: active infections, 1,691—up 45 since yesterday; cumulative hospitalizations, 135—up 4; deaths remain at 15.

On our hike today, everyone was respectful of distancing, and I'd guess that 75 percent of hikers pulled their masks over nose and mouth as we approached. Here on the central coast, we have low numbers of infections (only 7 percent of Monterey County cases are on the Monterey Peninsula and in Big Sur, versus 85 percent in the Salinas Valley) and high respect for the viciousness of this virus. I don't understand people who refuse to wear a mask. I just don't.