Epic Hikes of the World ( PDFDrive )

© Aurora Photos | Alamy
backpackers make their way along the path
Few tangible remnants of this past remain, yet a different kind of domesticity has
set in. Our home for the night was one of Sinkyone State Park’s 15 ‘environmental
campsites’, a simple affair by US camping standards, but luxurious compared with
the bare-bones sites we’d encountered further south. It had a picnic table, fire ring
and outhouse, and we felt like royalty.
As the sun began to set over the low headland leading down to the beach, we
detected other signs of life – silhouetted along the ridgeline was a small herd of
Roosevelt elk. Originally native to this area, they were reintroduced in recent
decades and have thrived in this pastoral habitat – the females grazing in the
company of their calves in spring, and the males putting on tremendous footstomping,
antler-clashing displays in the autumn rutting months. Throughout the
night, the elk wandered through our campsite at will, grazing and snorting. When
we awoke the next morning, the grasses beside our tent bore the imprints of their
massive bodies.
The route back to civilisation was short and sweet. A 3-mile (5km) dirt road wove
north from Bear Harbor along the bluffs, opening up more expansive vistas of