USA

This is one of my favorite hikes in the extended Bay area. Just south of Carmel, this is a nice outing for the intermediate hiker. There are signs marking Garrapata State Park before the trailhead but there is no formal entrance or anything like that. Incidentally, Garrapata means something like wood tick in Spanish. The trailhead is at a turnout on a curving part of Highway 1 about 10 miles south of Carmel. Look for a gate on the left side. We had decided to take the Soberanes creek- Rocky Ridge loop trail.

It was the last day of our Labor Day weekend trip to Olympic National Park and on a whim, we decided to go to the Paradise area of Rainier National Park on our way back to Seattle. We reached there just after lunch time. We had grabbed something to eat along and were ready to do a quick hike. The ranger in the visitor center suggested doing either the Nisqually Vista trail or the Myrtle Falls trail. We went with the latter one.

Day 2 of the trip dawned bright and sunny. Our plan was to hike to Piegan Pass. You can do a longer hike from Going-to-the-Sun road to Many Glacier, but we were only going till the pass.

Day 2 of our Memorial Day weekend, 2006 – the plan was to spend the day hiking to Rainbow Falls in the Devils Postpile National Monument near Red’s Meadow. After having breakfast in our room, we hit 395 and headed south to Mammoth Lakes. Unless you are camping or are a guest of the Red’s Meadow resort, you have to take a shuttle bus from the Mammoth Mountain Adventure center to get into the Red’s Meadow area. Paying the nominal fee, we hopped onto the shuttle.