Sunday 5 August 2018
As promised, Manny is packed and ready to leave by 10 am. O and I move Wglwof up the slope to a nice flat site. We won’t have to keep crawling back uphill in our sleep tonight. After camp is tidied up we drive back over the winding mountain road. O explains it’s one of those roads where you can reach out and clean your tail lights as you come around a curve. On this trip we pause for some photos as we crest the mountain.
Next, we drive to Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park to view a waterfall that splashes onto the beach. The Pfeiffers settled in the area in the 1860’s. Unfortunately you cannot walk all the way to the waterfall anymore, only to an overlook. The trail was damaged last year by fire and subsequent flooding. From the park, we drive two miles further north to find a sandy path leading around several switchbacks down to a rocky cove. We watch the waves crashing and the incredibly blue ocean for awhile. Then we venture along a side trail to some low rocky cliffs down which some scuba divers are picking their way.
By now, O and I are getting rather hungry. We find a restaurant called Nepenthe which sits on a high hillside overlooking steep slopes that plunge down to the ocean. As we wait for a table we see a flock of wild turkeys, more acorn woodpeckers, Stellar’s jays, and western scrub jays. As we dine I spy what I am pretty sure is a red-shouldered hawk, its underside bright orange in the afternoon sunshine. After dinner we venture back over the twisty road once more to return to camp.
