Bluff through the moun- tains to Manton on a summer day is a rewarding enough adventure in its own right.
The drive from Red
Eventually we got to Manton with my dog panting out the window and my wife wondering if the chicken scratch I was using to navigate was going to get us any- where.
Just north of Highway 36 we found a dirt road off of Ponderosa Way. This was it.
I started driving all of 200 feet at 2 mph when... Thud.
My little Ford Focus wasn't going to be able to take this drive. We were going to have to hike it and at that point it seemed like no waterfall short of Niagara was going to wipe that look off my wife's face.
But with my dog leading the way we took off on what turned out to be a fairly easy one- mileish hike down the dirt road.
It was hot, but we felt like the only people in the world and my dog felt like the king of it all wandering ahead of us taking in every odor her wet nose could smell. With our car a distant
memory, the sound of drizzling water soon filled the air.
Our feet and paws quickened their steps and there, tucked away in a corner of the sun drench dirt road was a luscious green rock for- mation.
It was a tiny tropical paradise in an area that would suggest there should be a plow tractor there instead.
paid off. Our little journey had
An older couple was seated on the rocks,
May, 2012, Tehama - the Magazine 27
