For Half Dome Aspirers...

Last night, after returning from Big Basin, we had to decide if we were going to do today's Sunday hike at Wunderlich Park. We had been told that we should do this, if we were Half Dome aspirers and we are. We needed to arrange child care and, having managed that, we got our packs ready.

Wunderlich park is located at the base of the Santa Cruz mountains where Highway 84 begins to wind its way up the hill. We arrived at the parking lot at our usual time of 7:45 am, and started off on the Alambique trail until we reached the junction of the Skyline trail. This trail winds its way upwards, at times with switchbacks, to Skyline Boulevard and we made it all the way to the top. At the top we rejoined the Alambique trail and started back down via a series of switchbacks until we reached the Meadows, a beautiful grassy clearing, currently full of wildflowers.


From there we walked down the Bear Gulch trail until we reached the parking lot once again. All told, this was a four hour hike. The only minor difficulty I had was needed to retie my boots properly on the downhill to prevent my toes from jamming into the front of my boots.