On the way back, we passed Taft Point again and stopped this time to check out the view. It was also pretty great.
What was really cool though was the group of tight rope walkers crossing the Fissures next to Taft Point. Here's what the set up look like from above:
Yes, that's a tightrope strung across a fissure in the cliffside. So it's a tightrope across a void that is thousands of feet from the ground. And people were walking across it. While this man technically has a safety harness on, a fall could still be fatal given that the beginning and end of the top are close to the cliff side so a slip and swing could send his head smashing into the cliffside. Just watching it made me nervous. It was amazing though.
We still had a lot of miles to cover to get back, so we could only stay to see the one guy cross. The trails were so pretty though. We went through a lot of changing geology on this ride. Some parts were wide shaded trails through the pine forests, and others were scrambles over granite rock.
We finally made it back to the campground and the gps tracker said we had gone 19.8 miles, which is a lot more than we planned for. We were all pretty tired and hungry. The ponies were lucky though and got to get sprayed down from the hose. We also got to take a shower with our solar shower. It felt so good to shower and get all the dirt and sweat off. Then we had chili in bread bowls for dinner. Then we went to bed and watched part of a movie before falling asleep. It was a really long, but really great day.