It was such a hot day on Sunday that I wanted to get out of the heat and go over to the coast, so loaded up Bella and we went back to the Rancho del Oso entrance of Big Basin. Even on the beach it was still probably in the 70s and as we rode inland, the temps went up into the 80s. Most of the ride in was at a walk to keep Bella comfortable.

Skyline-to-the-Sea Trail

There's a little footbridge on the side of this trail. Perhaps this area is marshy in the winter and spring.

The hillside on the right is very lush, so the hill must retain a lot of moisture.

This area was thoroughly logged about 100 years ago, but there are still a few good-size redwoods along the trail.

Don't know what's causing the spots on the lens.

This is a popular trail for cyclists - today there were quite a few out pedaling around. Most were very courteous in passing my mare and I.

We are 1.3 miles in at this point and a side-trail is the Clark Connection which goes up sharply to meet the Westridge Trail.

The path goes off to the right to a campground - and to the left is the Clark Connection trail which crosses Waddell Creek just past the little sign.

Clark Connection trail and Waddell Creek

We stayed on the Skyline-to-the-Sea trail

The creek is very shallow in some areas.

The hillsides rise sharply from this canyon.

Waddell Creek

Part of this photo is the forest reflecting in the creek

Creek crossing

The McCrary Ridge Trail goes up steeply about 1000 feet in the next mile. The smaller sign says: equestrians only, no bikes, too steep for hikers

Looks like a nice trail; we'll have to try it sometime, but I wouldn't attempt it without a companion in case we run into trouble.

So we rode up Skyline-to-the-Sea about 5.2 miles and then took a left and went up Henry Creek Trail, maybe about 1.5 miles. Hard to say what the elevation is here except that we are above the forest we'd just been riding through.

The higher we climbed, the less dense the eco-system.

This looks like the top of the ridge. This trail looked steeper in person than it looks in this picture and the footing consisted of tiny pebbles.

This is looking further up the trail to the north. Yeah, well, it's 5:30, and there's absolutely no one around, and the hillsides all fall away from the trail sharply, soooo ...

...this is as far as we went up the Henry Creek Trail. This next series of shots is the 360 degree view. This is north-northeast.

This is northeast

This is southeast - the trail we just came up (and are about to go down)

This is southwest

This is north west - the sky is kind of hazy over the ocean just over these ridges

Bella was catching her breath while I was admiring the view and taking pictures. Some yellow jackets must have caught her scent and started buzzing around her head.

Bella looks west, no doubt thinking about the shady trailer, her hay bag and water bucket back in the parking lot.

Bella - I tried to braid her mane to get it off her neck, but as soon as I did, she shook herself and it all came out.

It was super quiet up here - don't know what she heard!

My beautiful and willing Bella

We have lots of time left in the afternoon, so I'm going to go nuts with the camera as we saunter back down the hillside.

Henry Creek Trail - leaving the dry ecosystem and going in to a more lush forest

Trail is pretty steep going down and is covered with leaves

Back into the woods

The trail switch backed down the steep canyon hillside.

Even though it looks dry, we were constantly buzzed by mosquitoes and also a yellow jacket that followed us down from the ridge.

Down ...

Down ...

Down ...

Down switchbacks ...

Bella, looking kinda hot, but showing some energy on the way back to level ground

Low branches over the trail

Very steep down ...

Unnamed small creek crossing

And then the trail went up!

And down ...

And down some more ...

And this is Henry Creek which had some nice clean, flowing water in it.

We paused and Bella got a little drink

It's difficult to see the perspective from this photo, but this is the other side of the trail after crossing the creek. These "steps" are probably about 3 feet high. When we came down the trail (going the other way), I dismounted and hand walked her down to the creek crossing, but she went up no problem on the way back.

Low branch over the trail.

Back on Skyline-to-the-Sea trail. Two weeks ago, we were unable to get past/over this fallen tree, but someone cleared the smaller branches away so that we could walk over the big branches.

Bella was okay walking over the branches with her front legs, but scrambled picking up her back legs to get over. She's not exactly happy to do this, but it didn't freak her out.

This looked kinda funny how the tree was growing out of the side of the hill like a rhinoceros horn

Here's a group of redwoods that had toppled over the trail, but there was enough space to ride under.

Even tho the trees had fallen over, they were still alive and new branches were growing out of the top side.

Directly under the toppled trees

Waddell Creek

This is a lovely part of the forest

Trees were growing on the edge of the eroded hillside

Redwood roots are very shallow

Exposed redwood roots

Trees growing uphill from the trail

Afternoon sunlight filters through the forest

Waddell Creek is kinda murky because it's recycled waste water

The sunlight backlit this oak tree - very bright!

Coming out of the redwood forest and getting closer to the ocean - another ecosystem with some angular trees

Some real healthy poison oak

There was a whole family of chipmunks hanging out at this tree and they were chirping like crazy until we came into view

Then they all froze and were real quiet.

Spanish moss hangs from the trees on the edge of the forest as we approach the parking lot

A healthy oak at the edge of the parking lot