Huckleberry Hill Nature Preserve & Stairway to Heaven (Monterey)

Two hikes from my hiking list start at Veteran’s Park.

The stairway to heaven is a 183-step staircase that I used to run up five times several times a week when I was stationed at DLI in the late 90’s. At the time, DLI was not a secure base. But after 9/11, all military installations became closed and I assumed that the staircase was fenced off as part of DLI.

The stairway to heaven is not fenced in! This will be my new favorite workout.

I was so proud of the three older ones for climbing the entire staircase! I carried Eliza about half way.

The next day, I went back by myself and ran two of the routes from
my hiking list. I did Presidio View – Bear Track – Scenic Trail Loop – Summit Rd – Scenic Rd Loop.

What goes down, must go up. That was a brutal workout. I had to walk some of it. I’m so excited to repeat this course and eventually be able to run the entire thing. Except for the part that needs to be climbed.

Later that day, I took Caleb to walk the course. When we got to the top of the first hill (there are two) he said “That’s it? Why did you say it is so steep?”

And then when we were climbing the second hill, he says “Oohhhhh, that’s steep!”

Ha! Man, I can’t tell you how awesome it feels to tire my boy out. And I thought it couldn’t be done.

The view from the top…

Caleb found what looks like an animal’s den in the fallen tree…

On our way down…

These are hikes #28 and #29 from my Monterey Hikes list.

Bear Track-Scenic Trail
Hiking distance: 1.5 mile round trip
Configuration: out-and-back with large loop
Elevation gain: 300 feet
Difficulty: easy
Exposure: mix of shaded forest and open hillside

Summit-Scenic Road
Hiking distance: 1.5 mile loop
Configuration: out-and-back with large loop
Elevation gain: 300 feet
Difficulty: easy
Exposure: mix of shaded forest and open hillside

Hiking time: 24 minutes for trail run with extra trip up stairs (5; 45 minute hike
Hiking buddies: trail run by myself and hike with Caleb (9yo)
Would you do it again? Definitely. Will do the trail run every other week.