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Jug Handle Trail: Location 18

You have climbed from the second, two-hundred-thousand-year-old, terrace to the third, three-hundred-thousand-year-old, terrace. A hundred thousand years ago this slope was the western edge of a conifer forest, with grasslands below stretching to the sea. As you walk the next section of trail, notice how the land slopes down both to the east and to the west - you are on the ancient sand dune formed when this terrace was at the ocean's edge. It has weathered to well drained soil very suitable for the coniferous forest, which consists mostly of bishop pines.