castle rock sp

K & I finally watched Matrix 2 and 3. I can understand why there were so many bad reviews for the 3rd one. It's good I didn't watch it by itself in the theatres like everyone else; 2 and 3 really do have to be seen together as one movie. It's also good I watched The Animatrix clips before watching the 2nd one.

I made a late-day decision to go to Castle Rock again. The views at Castle Rock are <insert your word for great, wonderful, awesome, etc>. Past the mountains in the distance you see Monterey Bay on one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other. I decided to try out the panoramic aid feature of our camera. For scenic pictures like the ones I was taking, it's really hard to get the camera to expose each picture the same amount. The stitching into a panoramic came out ok though...


K's funky panoramic...

We still haven't hiked a full "loop". Last time, it was because we took the wrong path at the fork, going up to Castle Rock thinking the path would wind around to the falls. The rock formations were interesting, especially with all the people out with their climbing gear. We were going to leave after lots of misdirection and battling of large fire ants, but I suggested taking the other path at the fork. And we did.

Just as we were about to turn around because we had yet to encounter the falls, I caught the sound of water. We couldn't stay long after seeing the falls though because K had an Arizona game to watch.

This time, we did not hike a full loop because of the late-day decision. We hiked up to Goat Rock and came back down.

Find a funky rock formation, and you will see climbers. K thought it would be fun to climb up to the top on the shorter side...

We managed to finish the hike 2 minutes before sunset (park closes at sunset). Castle Rock State Park notes: the end of the hike is always uphill, and the crazy ants are only on the Castle Rock side, not on the paths to the falls and Goat Rock.