Bella and I started off early on a lovely Saturday morning. I decided to go all the way up Gazos Creek Road and then loop around on Johansen Road and come back down on the Middle Ridge Road. That didn't quite turn out as I planned, but it was a great ride anyway!

Years ago, a friend told me that white spots on photographs were faeries that got caught on film. That's a big one right over the road, eh?

Small creek along Gazos Creek Road

Wider look at the creek.

A tiny tree is growing from the trunk of a redwood that was cut down (probably) more than a century ago.

About 6.5 miles from our starting point, was a point on the map labeled 'Sandy Point.' It was fenced off and deserted. The theme was Native American and this sign says "Mitakuye Oyasin Tokahe" - what do you think that means?

On the hillside above the sign were these teepees. I don't think this is State Park property.

Decided to go west on Whitehouse Canyon Road and see what was up that way before going back on the loop.

This was a nice, wide sandy road along a ridge.

The view to the northwest was gorgeous!

The ridge across the canyon looked like it was granite with some scrub bushes trying to root there. It reminded me of Yosemite. This is a telephoto photo.

This is a wide angle photo of the canyon and the granite hillside. Beyond that ridge is the Pacific Ocean and Año Nuevo State Reserve, which has the largest breeding colony of northern elephant seals.

I thought this trail/road was very pretty and one of the most scenic in the park. I love great views!

Another view of the canyon and distant ridge.

There's still some fog at the coast - you can see it in the dip of the mountain on the right side of this photo

Looking down into the canyon. Look at how steep these hillsides are!

Wide angle of the canyon.

Another spectacular view

This is about as far as we rode on this trail, maybe about 1.5 miles up the Whitehouse Canyon Road Trail from Gazos Creek.

Back to this viewpoint.

Looking northeast - this is the direction we're riding now <

Looking west toward the coast

Here we are back at Sandy Point. This box car and caboose are on actual train tracks to nowhere.

Maybe at one time this was a camping destination

This is the gate at the start of Johansen Road.

Unfortunately, there's a cable strung across the side of the gate and Bella just could not get a front leg over it. It was like a jump rope, just below her knees. I put the arrows on the photo because I gave this to a park ranger later when I complained about the danger of a cable strung across a horse trail.

So, unfortunately, we couldn't take the road back that I planned, so our only alternative was to go back the way we came on Gazos Creek Road.

At Sandy Point, Gazos Creek Road becomes a private road and the gate is locked with no access to anyone.

Gazos Creek Road had some nice views looking south across the canyon.

Coastal fog and smoke

Mountains in the distance are hazy due to smoke.

Back into the woods on Gazos Creek Road

Bark of the madrone peels away this time of year.

This is an old fire area. Lots of shrubs have grown back with a few old surviving trees. I think there was a fire here in the 1970s

Exposed roots on the eroded hillside.

A madrone grows strangely out of the top of the hillside.

Steep hillside above the road.

Layers of sediment exposed by erosion.

This is all uplifted ocean bottom.

Lovely forest diversity.

The base of a burned (yet living) pine tree

The base of these redwoods was burned from a previous fire. Redwoods are extraordinarily fire-resistant.

Often, a fire will hollow out a redwood, but as long as the thick bark is intact, it remains a living tree.

The base of this old redwood is gnarled and knotty.

Bella was tired after about a 4.5 hour, 16-mile ride.

"X" marks the spot where the Gazos Creek Road gate is, and the parking area is just off to the right.

Bella, at the end of our trip down from the ridges.

Let's remember this nice view from our ride ....