We started at the South Overlook. This woman was there all day counting hawks. Amongst other hawks, they saw one bald eagle.

The uphill climb at this point was moderate

A little bit of history

This is North Overlook. This is where most of the bird counting is done.

At North Overlook. It took about 1/2 hr to get this far.

From North Overlook at Elevation 1521, we "descended" a little bit to the Skyline trail.

"Descent" didn't quite describe what we had to do........

It was more like crawling over and down huge boulders.....

....with 8-10 foot drops and jumps down of 3-4 feet.

We didn't expect the 1.5 miles of bouldering we were going ot have to don along the Skyline Trail.

There would be 25 foot climbs up and then 15 foot climbs down.

....and the clambering up and down coninued all along the ridge

We came to a clearing.....

...but it didn't last long

More rocks.....

We were getting a little tired of this and Lynn was wearing holes in her pants

We couldn't wait to get to Eagle Rock, where the Skyline Trail was supposed to ease up

...not easing up yet!!

Lynn led the way

We're close to two hours into the trip now, the weather's not improving and we are wondering what we got ourselves into...

and then.....Eagle Rock!!!

Just a little more climbing and we arrived at...

...the junction with Golden Eagle Trail that would take us down into the valley below the ridge. We ate lunch here and put the camera on timer(that was hanging on a trail marker) and "fit" ourselves into the frame!

We descended into an oak tree forest...lots of acorns and chipmunks..

It was a beautiful walk through the woods. It wa nice to be on level ground.

We crossed a brook. I got a soaker but my new Vasque boots didn't leak...well worth money.

Now we are on the River of Rocks Trail basically paralleling the ridge, but 700 feet lower in elevation.

We were going about 3 and 1/2 hours now and the hike was getting a little bit old at this point, and we still had to go up another 700 feet back the point and place of beginning!

... a brook

Oh no....more rocks!!

OK!!!!! Got to go 600 feet up....

4 hours and 4.2 miles later...we are back at South Overlook...What a piece of cake..It was a great hike.