Gorillas in the Mist Playground Hike

By Robert Bernstein

The Playground is my favorite Sierra Club hike to lead. A couple of weeks ago I led it in the densest fog I have ever encountered there. We truly were Gorillas in the Mist! Here are all of my photos.

We had 15 eager people who came out to explore under these challenging conditions. Challenging for me, because I navigate by remembering a series of way points. I get to one and look for the next one. On this occasion I could not see a single next way point!

As usual, the group gathered on the first overlook before descending into the labyrinth below. For the first time ever, there was no view from that overlook!

I asked the group to wait for me for a bit as I scouted out the route to the hidden caves. This made for a nice group photo looking back toward the “balcony” where we entered high abov

Here was the beginning of the descent in the fog.

As usual, I paused below those rocks to take photos of people “holding up” the Atlas Rock. This entire family came out together and posed for a family photo!

UCSB Mathematics professor Xian-Zhe is a regular on my hikes. He usually comes with his wife, but this time he came with his energetic son Adam.

Months of rain, fog and drizzle have draped everything in moss and algae as you can see on the Atlas Rock. And in this photo.

Unfortunately, that moss and algae made the rocks very slick. It is probably ten years since I had to fill out an “incident report” with the Sierra Club. After this hike I had to fill out three. The first incident being a fall. One of the eager hikers climbed a rock that was not on the official route. I am happy when people take the time to explore a bit off the official route. This was the first time ever that something went wrong. He fell from the rock he had climbed on.

I was already down into the beginning of the cave complex when I heard a loud thud and an “Oh sh-t!”. Not what you ever want to hear. But there is something worse: A loud thud followed by nothing.

I raced back up out of the cave and found the hiker dazed, but standing. One of the other hikers said that he had fallen about ten feet. That can be fatal if it is onto rock, as this was. But he was very lucky and landed on his back onto his full back pack. He was more embarrassed than injured. I was in awe that he was good with continuing and had no further problems.

We continued into the cave complex. Even the cave was foggy! And I made this very odd find! A hat that looked brand new, with no dirt on it.

We gathered in the middle of the biggest cave chamber for a group photo.

I held up the hat and found an amazing answer to the mystery: The hiker who had fallen had lost it in the fall and it had flown all the way down into the cave! Hat and hiker were reunited!

My neighbor friend Alex found a geocache hidden in the cave! I had walked right past it. Alex was also very helpful with assisting other hikers all along the way.

Another photo-op I enjoy is catching people as they emerge from the tight squeeze at the cave exit. I love this photo of Danielle coming out, with moss all around! Danielle is the one who invited her entire extended family to come along. That doesn’t always go well, but in this case they all had a good time.

Here her parents were smiling as they emerged from the cave.

Here they were all smiles a few minutes later, descending the famous Narrows!

Petra gave me a thumbs up as she squeezed through.

The next two incidents followed closely on each other. One hiker had a twisted ankle just before entering the Narrows. Danielle was a gymnast and gymnastics coach and she is expert at wrapping ankles. Her mother Marta had Ace bandage wrap ready for action. What a team! The hiker was almost good as new with that wrap. You can be sure I will be carrying that wrap from now on.

The other incident was a fall inside the Narrows on the very slippery rocks. That included a banged shoulder against the rocks. That was the scariest incident. Not much to be done. The hiker opted to continue, even though the rest of the route involved upper body strength. The group worked together to help.

Here we rested and had snacks or lunches. On some days I would lead an optional extension to another spot below, but we were happy to leave that out this time. Nothing to be seen in the fog down there anyway!

It is always a treat for me to find the succulent Dudleya. On this hike I found it in several places. Including growing right out of this rock!

The Gorillas in the Mist scene continued as we made our way to what I call the Mushroom Rock, with a little cave in it.

We then headed across the upper ridge past the Cube Rock.

Into the final cave! Tatiana (nearest to me) is one of the most faithful regulars on my hikes. She is strong and pleasant and never complains. Good characteristics, given that her family is trying to survive back home in Ukraine.

I posed with this blooming yucca flower in the mist.

Phil and Xian-Zhe helped people across a gap that can be challenging.

And then they helped people up the final climb out of the Playground.

It was quite an adventure with some scary hardships. But everyone was smiling as we emerged from the Playground and paused before the 20 minute hike back to West Camino Cielo!

You can see the schedule of all of our local Sierra Club Santa Barbara Group hikes here on Meetup. Everyone is welcome! https://www.meetup.com/sierraclub-santabarbara/events/