Showing posts with label Montana de Oro State Park. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Montana de Oro State Park. Show all posts

Friday, September 24, 2021

Hazard Peak Loop

We returned to Montana de Oro State Park today to hike up to Hazard Peak. We decided to do it as a loop. We parked at the Hazard Peak TH, walked a short ways down the road to the Isley Creek Road (a service road for the park, and recreation trail for bikers, hikers and equestrians). We hiked about 2.6 miles along Isley Creek Road to the Barranca Trail to a short ways along the East Boundary Trail and then the Hazard Peak Trail back to the trailhead. 
It was foggy for most of our hike, view of the Pacific Coast as we began our hike.
Interesting rocky hillsides along our route.
We hiked on the other side of Isley Creek yesterday, lots of trees and greenery in the creek valley.
The fog would lift and descend as we hiked, giving us occasional views of the nearby peaks.
doe with two fawns on the road
buck hiding behind some foliage
Pretty colors as the rising sun hit the fog
verdant in the creek valley
We were happy to see some wildflowers along the trails today.
Lots of oak trees (and poison oak, which we avoided)
Partial views along the Barranca Trail, the peak on this trail remained in the fog.
Still foggy as we hike up to Hazard Peak
Our best view up on Hazard Peak
Had good views to the east as we started down from Hazard Peak 
One of several lizards we saw along the trail today
As we hiked towards the trailhead, the fog started to lift and we saw ridgelines in other directions.
Hazard Peak stayed fogged in
We hiked through some eucalyptus trees
And before our hike ended, the fog lifted so we could see the Pacific Ocean and coastline.
Some of the flowers (and berries) we saw along the trail today:

 





 

Thursday, September 23, 2021

Reservoir Flats

On our way south this afternoon, we stopped at Montana de Oro State Park on the Pacific Coast to do a short 2 mile loop walk, Reservoir Flats. We oped to hike counterclockwise.
We had some nice views of the nearby peaks.
And a little view of the Pacific Ocean behind us.
The trail took us through the Isley Creek Valley, that was full of greenery.

Very refreshing
We saw some wildflowers along this route
Fog rolling in this afternoon
View of the beach along the Pacific Coast across the road from our trailhead.
some of the wildflowers (and some berries)  we saw along the trail today: