An Insane Hike in the Heat!

I added up the lengths of some of the connecting trails featured on a map in the Andrew Molera State Park parking lot. The Creamery Meadow trail, the most popular, was 1 mile to get to an intersection of trails or 1.2 miles if you wanted to get down to the ocean. At the intersection, a short path led you to where the Bluff Trail (1.7 miles) and the Ridge Trail (3.2 miles) connected. The Panoramic Trail (1.3 miles) fused the Bluff and Ridge Trails to form a loop that took you along the coastline and through redwood forests. In total, it was an 8.6 mile hike round trip with an elevation gain of a little over 1,100 feet. 

Having never done a trail so long before, let alone with such a dramatic elevation gain, I wanted to complete the loop really badly. The rest of my family, especially my sister Flor, were hesitant. We eventually decided the hike would be fun, so we set out on our grand adventure. We didn’t really realize how strenuous of a hike we were getting ourselves into. 

From the parking lot, we arrived at the Creamery Meadows Trailhead. We walked a short distance, transversed a small creek via a bridge, and reached a grassy area with few trees. The landscape slowly melded from grasses to trees with a walls of poison oak guarding them. Wind carried the salty breeze from the nearby ocean and we saw birds like Acorn Woodpeckers and Chestnut-backed Chickadees.