Sunday Hike, July 4, 2021

The San Miguel Hiking Group has begun Sunday hikes again and we were delighted to join the group on the 4th of July. We drove a short distance to the little village of San Marcos de Begoña and set out on foot on a foggy day. The recent rains brought all the wildflowers to life, and the spectacular Man of the Earth, a type of morning glory, were in full bloom. The ground was covered in them.  

How I longed for a real camera with a macro lens instead of my iPhone.

We were near the large lake formed by the Presa Allende, the dam which controls the River Laja, as well as smaller bodies of water formed from older dams. This is the old dam which we walked across. A little tricky due to the uneven stones.

There were many lovely scenes along the way.

A view down the canyon behind the old dam with the railroad bridge and the big lake in the distance.

All along the almost 4 mile hike were tons of wildflowers, many too small to photograph well.  

Fairy Dusters are among my favorites.

It was a lovely way to spend the morning.

[BTW, I have nothing to do with the administration or leadership of the hiking group.  I’m just a happy, occasional hiker.  To join the group and receive information about hikes you need to go to https://www.sanmiguelhiking.com/contact.html
Just fill out the little form and you will be added to the email notification list.  There is no commitment on your part - you will just receive emails about the different hikes.
You can also read the guidelines and description of the hikes and the difficulty of different levels.  https://www.sanmiguelhiking.com/guidelines.html  ]

Trip to Kauai

Quite awhile ago, DH and I purchased a one-time, week-long stay with a time-share outfit. It was a very low price for a place that rents for $400 per night, and the only hitch was that we had to listen to a 120-minute sales pitch aimed at getting us to buy time-share points. It's amazing how l-o-n-g 120 minutes can be! But it was worth it because we had a great time. And thank goodness for frequent flier points which got us there for free.
We were on Kauai, the garden island, which is the wettest of the islands. Even in the dry season, there are lots of waterfalls and the rivers are full.



















We drove up Waimea Canyon, the "grand canyon" of Hawaii, and stopped to enjoy the views.

































































The road ends and to get any further, you have to hike. The ocean side of the mountain was shrouded in thick fog and the trail was muddy and very slick in spots, but we hiked a mile to the "viewpoint" in hopes that the fog would go away. In the photo below, you can see the ridge we were aiming at in the upper right corner. You can also see the famous red dirt of Kauai in the foreground. The big hiker with the hat is my hubby.

The ocean side was still socked in, but I got one nice shot into the canyon.