North Fork Skok and Rialto Beach

I got to hike twice this week.


First on Thursday I walked to biglog camp on the North Fork Skok trail. This was a very nice hike on a sunny day. I went 13.5 miles because I left my GPS behind and had to go and extra 2.5 miles to retrieve it.








It was so nice to be back on my favorite winter time trail. It's been nearly a year since they closed the road out to Staircase. This was the first time I've seen sunshine on this trail and it sure was nice. Normally I hike this in the winter when the other trails are snowed out.
I really missed this trail all winter.

I hiked to Big Log camp and sat in the big cedar tree and cooked my lunch there. Someone moved the chopping block that I like cooking on to a lower spot and there is no way I could move it back to where it was. I wonder if I can get someone to move it back to the base of the big cedar so I will have a nice place to cook this winter.

The trail showed very little evidence of damage from the winter storms. Trail is well maintained with no trees laying across it.

I ran into six other people out near big log. I also ran into two groups of people near the trail head who did not realize that the bridge on the loop trail is gone. It's been gone since 1999 and I really wish the park service would fix it. The cost to get into Staircase is now $15.00






Then on Sunday I hiked from Rialto Beach to the Chilean Memorial. This was also a nice hike and my oldest went along with me for most of it. 8.3 miles Round trip with only 100 feet elevation gain but over soft sand and fields of rocks.

We took the headland over "Hole in the Wall" on the way out and walked through it on the way in.