Two Days of Mountain Bliss

 We've had an awesome 2 days exploring Shell Ridge and Castle Rock park in the Diablo foothills.  Yesterday afternoon we set out with our friend Simone on a hike from Shell Ridge to Castle Rock.  If you are local - we took the Briones to Diablo trail and came down Buckeye Ravine to drop down into Castle Rock.  We have had a cooling off of the weather, so both days were comfortable, although yesterday was a bit warm on the exposed trail. Here are a few pics from yesterday-

A hot spot, the Briones to Diablo trail was a steady climb, nearly all exposed trail. If you are familiar w/Coastal Trail Runs, their new Zoom event in Shell Ridge will use this trail on the return to Castle Rock.

Looking down on Borgess Ranch

We are just starting down Buckeye Ravine, which is one of the kids favorite trails

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Coming out at the bottom you have a great view of Castle Rock.

We were all a bit warm, but the shade of the cave was nice and cool.

Goats

That was day one....today we headed back to Castle Rock park w/The Beast and her kids to do some exploring. Her kids had not been here before.  We headed up a loop to get to the top of Buckeye Ravine so they could experience the joy of running/sliding down it.

A whole lotta goats.

Ok readers...what is this?? It looks nothing like the big, black tarantulas we have seen higher up on the Mt, nor is it the season for them (fall).  When we came up on it, it did have a tarantula hawk attacking it, and it seemed to be paralyzed/sedated. It was twitchy like something was happening to it's nervous system, so I'm pretty positive the tarantula hawk had done it's job.  I've googled spiders native to Diablo, but can't seem to come up with a match.

Heading down Buckeye Ravine again.

The coloring of the scrub was so pretty, it looked like a painting.

Seeing how little Myles looks in there gives a good idea of how large this cave is, i usually take the pictures close up, so you don't ever get to see how big it is.

This is another cave, but they don't go in it unless Brian is w/us to lift them up in it, so instead they played on the rock slide for a bit, myles wore a nice hole in his shorts.

Owen coming down w/Sawyer behind him.

Another cave.

They are determined to get up higher to another cave.

Goats on a hill.

With some help from Angela, they made it in, getting out was a bit more difficult.

I had to go up to get Myles out, he was pretty scared

Two days in one of my favorite places! I know I say it a lot, but we are super grateful to have places like this so close to home.  Both days we hiked for about 4 hours and still had half the rest of the day free because the hike is nearly out the front door.