This hike, along with Big Basin, was probably one of my favorites. This site has a ton of QuickTime VR panoramas of the park!
Cool, green, dark, hiking in the forest. We did have to ford the stream several times and I was probably a bit too slow there, but I got through it with much appreciated help from Jen.
First picture here is Kelly lunching on a stump. Kelly was very well prepared, she also had a garbage bag to sit on too. I really love how comfortable it looks. (She said it was actually comfortable!)
During the hike, I asked Bowman why the park is called "Forest of the Nisene Marks." I thought it was some sort of religious group of Nisene monks or something, but I learned from him that it is actually "Forest of Nisene Marks" - Nisene Marks was a woman whose family lived in the area and owned this land and when she died they donated it as a park.
See full story on wikipedia:
"The park was named for Nisene Marks, a passionate nature lover and the mother of a Salinas farming family that purchased the land from lumber companies (and others), in the hopes of finding oil. Nisene's children donated the 9,700 acres (39 km²) of land in her memory, to the State of California (with the help of the Nature Conservancy) in 1963 after drilling efforts had failed to find any oil."
I was really moved by this - this was already one of my favorite hikes and then it turns out the whole park was set up in memory of a mother, and I am hiking in memory of my mother.
Here's Jen - not sure what she is doing or why I took this picture:
Here's Reggie showing how to ford a stream with no poles! (We were using our poles for balance but one of mine decided to suddenly telescope in the middle of the hike):
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