So, Ku'uipo packed the backpacks, and they were on their way.
As soon as they arrived at the address, there's a sandy road on the right that leads into the parking lot. Please note, it's near the corner of the street and can easily be passed. If you've gone to the light you've gone too far. The parking lot is a fairly decent size, and has a parking meter near port-o-potties.
Mike began to take pictures of stuff in the parking lot. Ku'uipo was anxious to get started and headed off to Mule Deer Trailhead which began near a small horse carrale. She turned to see what was taking Mike so long, and then turned back to the trail when she was startled at seeing a light brown animal. At first she assumed mountain lion, but immediately realized it was a deer, and then handfuls more.
She excitedly yelled, "Mike! Deer! Hurry!" Mike was trying to adjust the contents of his camera bag. Ku'uipo began taking pictures of the deer and kept urging Mike to hurry.
Mike finally got his camera together Nd took amazing pictures of deer. (Coming soon)
Ku'uipo tried to get a little closer, but knowing there were baby deer and mamas, she tread very carefully. Finally, the deer tired of Ku'uipo and Mike getting too close and ran into woods. Mike followed but they disappeared. So, the hike commenced. They walked passed a prairie, over a manmade wooden pathway, over some hilly area and finally made it to a fork in the trail. They went right, which led to a peak and they could see Santiago Peak and a few of the other mountains in the Santa Ana range. To get up to that peak, they had to endure what sounded like a rTtlesnake den that wAs disturbed. Ku'uipo was terrified, and Mike was annoyed by her rattler fear. Ku'uipo recorded a video of their argument. (Coming soon)
They turned from that peak to head back toward the other trail l(left) which took them to a small informational billboard regarding the different wild cats in the area. Ku'uipo found a pile of rocks and balanced a few. (Pics coming soon)
They headed back to the parking lot in hopes of seeing deer again, to no avail. Ku'uipo wanted to check out the butterfly garden at the ranger station. So, they headed to the little trail to walk through the garden. Many milkweeds, trees, poppies, and poison oak (with signs) line the trail. Plenty of butterflies and bees were seen.
It was definitely an easy hike at the Mule Deer tail and worth it!
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