Today was a bit like a bonus town day, but we still covered 14.3 miles, 22.9 km. We walked past the famous Vasquez Rocks, which have historically been used to shoot dozens of films and TV series. We also had lunch in an awesome Mexican bar and camped just on the other side of town.

I left the RV Resort at around 7 am and made the second railroad crossing of the trail. The last crossing was at mile 3, which felt like a lifetime ago.

The trail then kicked off a long and steep climb. After 3.5 miles, I saw a big cave and decided to check it out. When I got there I realized it’s a perfect spot for breakfast, so that’s what I did.

After breakfast, the trail continued along the tops before descending to highway 14. There was a long tunnel under the highway which allowed me to cross. The tunnel was full of interesting graffiti, and I took my time to check it out on the way through.

Emerging from the end of the tunnel took me straight into the Vasquez Rocks Natural Area. The geology here was fascinating, uplifted by faults and tectonic activity.

The location has historically featured in a lot of films, including Star Trek, The Flintstones, and Planet of the Apes. There once stood a famous stone castle which was also used as a movie set, but it was torn down after falling into disrepair.

From Vasquez Rocks, it was about 20 minutes walk to town. I caught up with some other hikers at a Mexican bar called Maria Bonita. They had ice cold beer on tap (steins unless asked otherwise), and a full Mexican food menu. I ordered the mucho burrito with al pastor meat, it was gigantic and absolutely delicious.

We had a 4 mile walk out of town to get to camp, most of which was on the road. My feet were aching by the time we got to the trail, and thankfully we arrived at camp shortly after. We set up, hung around a bit, but nobody was very hungry after Maria Bonita. Eventually everyone drifted off to bed, another day completed.