Last Thursday, as part of our vacation at 10th week of the
Lair of the Golden Bear family camp, we spent a day at Natural Bridges
near
Columbia, California. Columbia is a former California Gold Rush boom
town that lives on as a state-preserved historic park and a National
Historic Landmark. Natural Bridges is about an hour’s drive downhill
from
Pinecrest, the tiny town near the Lair.
The turn off to the Natural Bridges trailhead is just past the long bridge
over the reservoir:
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If you go to Natural Bridges, bring a swim suit, water shoes, towel, lunch,
water and an inner tube or some kind of big water float. The deep stream
running through the caverns is very cold; it is more fun if some of you is above
the icy water. Water shoes help when walking on the slippery stones.
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Even in summer, the floor of the big cavern is under water but the
stalactites, limestone
formations, and waterfalls of this living cave are spectacular. There
are three areas in the cave: the entry chamber at the base of the trail,
the vaulted middle chamber, and the exit chamber where the stream enters
the cavern. There are crawdads (crayfish – like tiny lobsters) and
little fish in the water.
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The abundance of water makes for lots of plants outside the cave,
including poison oak and
prickly blackberry vines. The steep hike downhill from the trail head
goes through a dry grassy border then enters a scrubby forest of
madrone and live oak and manzanita and California buckeye, with poison oak everywhere. At this time of year, hikers must avoid poison oak on
the ground and even vining through the trees. “Leaves Three – Let
Me Be”!
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Images by Katy Dickinson (Copyright 2006)
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