Welcome to the final chapter of our journey through Dante’s Divine Comedy on our Purgatory Creek Trail system. Having journeyed through Hell the last two weeks, we find ourselves on the brink of heaven standing at the intersection of the Paraiso trails.
Up until this year, the Paraiso Trail consisted of a single track moving West from the apex of the Styx Trail, but thanks to the hard work of the SMGA, a new onemile stretch branches to the North before rejoining the Dante Trail just before the Upper Purgatory parking lot. We’ll take the established western route past the Minotaur Canyon Look Out (the Minotaur being the half-man, half-bull creature of Cretan fame who guards the violent ring of hell) before descending back down into Purgatory Creek.
The Paraiso Trail doesn’t live up to its name in terms of terrain, as it consists mostly of jagged limestone reaching up for our feet with every step. Yet it does embody paradise according to Jean-Paul Sartre, the French existentialist who said, “Hell is other people.” The Paraiso Trail makes for miserable mountain biking and tricky hiking, so it is the least populated trail in the park. Given its meandering through remoter sections, it’s also one of the quietest, so if we’re looking for some solitude, Paraiso is indeed a little slice of heaven. Coming down from this mountain- top experience, we once again connect with the Dante Trail, backtracking our way to the Beatrice intersection.
