After a Pinnacles research day, Tricia and I got in another county highpoint on Tuesday (as always, with Vicki's help). What a contrast between the Monterey County highpoint (Junipero Serra Peak) and Sunday's Little Blue Peak.
Junipero Serra is in the Ventana Wilderness, reached through King City. And, although it requires a grueling uphill (over 3,800 feet gained in 6.2 miles), there's a trail! Yes, in few places the trail is brushy, but it still seemed so luxurious compared to Little Blue.
And the views from the top! This is one summit I would highly, highly recommend. I know that Waldo's been there four or more times.
Here's the trailhead and the start of the hike:
Vicki hiked partway in with us:
And then the uphill began:
Looking down the canyon we came up:
As we neared the summit we moved around onto the northeast side of the peak. The hiking there is through gorgeous stands of Ponderosa and Sugar pine:
A lone sugar pine, looking east:
The same side of the peak had the only true brushing of the whole hike (and there, the trail-tread was very easy to follow):
The old, abandoned lookout tower (which is actually on a secondary summit, 1/10th of a mile from the real top):
And the views from the summit (squint and Japan seems visible out over the Pacific):
Goofing off on a leftover concrete stanchion:
This view is from slightly east of the summit; looking east over the Salinas Valley, Soledad, and the Chalone Peaks at Pinnacles. I'd actually expected to see Pinnacles clearly from the top of Junipero Serra. But once there I realized that we were looking down on it, even down at the High Peaks. And so the features that I expected to see (rocks, up high) blended completely with the higher ranges to the east of Pinnacles:
I believe that the High Peaks are visible in this shot, just left of the tops of the right-most tree branches:
Reading and signing the summit register:
And then the descent. It took us 3 1/2 hours to hike to the summit. And two hours to descend:
And now I've got four more county highpoints to do (out of 56). And Tricia's done 35 of 56 (and she's only 15 years old).