Okay, it’s time to buy a bigger 4WD vehicle. Our day began with an ambitious plan to hike both Big Falls and Little Falls Canyons northeast of Lopez Lake near Arroyo Grande, an 8+-mile endeavor that would require a drive up Lopez Canyon Road – though a county road, this route crosses Lopez Creek more than a dozen times to reach the Big Falls trailhead. Chris had brought the CRV thinking we might be able to pull this off, and we had high hopes as we set out from Pismo, expecting that water levels would be low enough to allow our easy and successful passage. We cruised up to the lake without incident, finding the Upper Lopez Canyon road just east of the lake facilities entrance. Initially paved with asphalt, the road climbs very steeply up the east side of High Ridge, traverses the ridgeline northward, then drops just as steeply down into Wittenberg Canyon, one of the tributary feeders of the lake itself. After passing some ranches and a Boy Scout camp, the road climbs again over a ridge before dropping into Lopez Canyon where the pavement ends. Here’s where it got a little hairy. Passing signs noting that high-clearance vehicles are required beyond this point, we reached our first creek crossing a few hundred yards later – the water looked to be maybe a foot deep and about 10 yards wide (we had failed to realize that Lopez Creek is fed by perennial springs, and that it is always flowing like this). We both got out to survey the situation, commenting that it would not be too cowardly to admit defeat right now and to go find a Plan B hike – however, the crossing held some sort of allure that begged us to at least give it a try, and we were near enough to civilization that we could probably get help if something went wrong. So, in we went. For Chris, the issue turned out not to be so much the depth of the water as it was how squirrely the car got as it crossed over the slippery rocks – for Jane, it was the depth, as is evident in her comments here (small children, please cover your ears). After this initial success, we made a second crossing shorter and shallower than the first before coming to a third crossing – here, we had to cross the creek at a more oblique angle, meaning we’d negotiate maybe 25 yards of water. Let’s do it, said we, and this was by far the craziest of the three – the CRV lurched and fishtailed, water steamed up from the warm engine, but we made it through and up the other side. Still catching our breath, we continued up the canyon for another hundred yards before coming to crossing #4 – although short in terms of distance, this crossing had steep sides and what looked to be deeper water, and we could see where other vehicles had torn up the dirt as they struggled to get up the other side. This was enough to finally deter us, so we made a 5-point turn on the narrow roadway and retraced our steps – the three re-crossings were just as manic the second time around, and it was great relief for us both to eventually get back to the pavement. As we drove back toward the lake, Jane flipped through our little guidebook and found a 7-mile hike at Lopez Lake – called the Duna Vista Loop Trail, this walk follows the lakeshore for the first 2-1/2 miles before climbing west to an overlook atop a ridge, then dropping southward off the ridge and returning north to complete the loop at the water’s edge. We made the half-hour drive back to the lake entrance, paid our day use fee ($10!), and found the Duna Vista trailhead at the end of the road. It was shortly after 11am when we set out past a closed access gate and north up a level road, reaching after a mile or so the Boy Scout camp we had driven by previously. Turning south, we made our way along the now-dry Wittenberg Creek, eventually reaching the lake just past the camp property. Here, what was until now a level road became a very pleasant singletrack that wound its way along the western shore of Wittenberg Arm (Lopez Lake is shaped in a V, one wing being Lopez Arm to the west and Wittenberg Arm to the east). We came to a junction with the Encinal Trail, part of the Duna Vista loop that switches back several times as it climbs westward away from the lake. As we gained elevation, we saw a small herd of about 15 deer below as they crossed a shallow cove of the lake before continuing north to graze on green grass along the lakeshore. At the top of the ridge, we came to another junction – the Encinal Trail continues north to a primitive walk-in campground another half-mile away, and we turned south to gain the Duna Vista overlook a few minutes later. A grand view awaited us, with the Santa Lucias to the north, the Caliente and Sierra Madre ranges to the east, and Arroyo Grande and the dunes to the south (we figure this view is what earned the overlook the name of Duna Vista). We ate our sandwiches here, the handful of people in outboard fishing boats on the lake being the only other humans we saw the entire 3+ hours we spent on the trail. The trip back began with a gentle descent southward along the ridge, but the drop back down to the lake was very steep in places, the trail apparently being an old jeep road judging from its width, and we were glad to have taken the Encinal Trail for our ascent. The deer were still grazing along the lake as we completed our descent, so out came the long lens to try and get some good pictures of them. We snapped several as we walked northward on the trail, gradually closing the distance between us and the herd. We reached a point closest to them atop a short bluff, and Chris was able to scramble down it to within about 50 yards before they got skittish. First, a buck ran swiftly to the north, away from the group, and the rest followed in groups of two or three. We proceeded quickly up the trail in an attempt to head them off, and we found several does congregating in a draw below us – the lead buck was nowhere to be seen, that is until Chris spotted his antlers in the brush not 30 feet away. He sprang from his cover, leaping through a clearing – Chris followed him, finding him at the bluff’s edge between two trees, silhouetted against the lake behind. What an experience! After taking some more photos, we continued north up the trail, looking for more deer who had gotten further ahead but finding none. Eventually, we reached the scout camp, made the turn southward, and returned down the access road back to the car. We expect this area gets very warm in the summertime, so it’s nice to be able to visit places like this in the cooler times of the year, even though the lake level was low and the grasses brown and dry. The campgrounds here looked to be very nice as we drove through, so maybe we’ll spend some more time here after the first of the year. A great day, from the thrilling creek crossings to the equally thrilling deer chase.