Pinnacles has trees?!

Good morning from Camp Roberts Rest Area - sleep was noisy, given the rather busy highway we are RIGHT NEXT TO, but it got the job done. But there's FOG. Air water. We've spent so much time in the desert, this just feels WET! We contain our excitement at the air water, and start the early morning drive to Pinnacles National Park.

Observations:

- following the Historical El Camino Real Trail, lined with large bells

- vineyards as far as the eye can see

- are those olive trees?

- following a road that is trapped between a mountain range on the right, and farm fields on the left. 

- the valley is like a soft brown carpet dotted with white farm buildings

- the cows look so happy, wearing their fuzzy winter coats, standing in the sun, eating hay

- KCBX is a really great public radio Jazz station that I find while scanning the airways

Pinnacles National Park WEST(because there are two sides, and they are not connected)

The Visitor's Centre is EMPTY. The ranger who scans our parks pass mentions that we are only number 14 & 15 that have entered the park this morning! Sounds like fun - off to the Chaparral trailhead we go! This morning, we'll be following the Balconies trail, first climb up and along the cliffs, then down to the bottom and through the caves.

This is such a completely unexpected and different ecosystem from what we have been experiencing thus far. Goodbye desert, hello pin trees, and great oaks dripping in Spanish moss, and green moss on all the rocks, and dew! We found moisture again! The volcanic pinnacles that surround us seem to have just popped straight out of the rolling green hills we've been driving through since morning, and they look so big and striking now.

Above us, floating on the warm airstream rising up the cliff face are California Condors. An endangered species, there is a good population of them in the park. Some reviewers on our hiking app, AllTrails, claim to have seen 3 circling around at a time, and another hiker whom we cross on the path says she saw 5 in the cliffs. We saw NINE at once, drifting and swooping and swirling high in the sir above us.

California Condors!	Hiking among trees?!
Mario is just as confused at the trees - where is the desert?	A vulture, backlit by the sun

On our way back, we switch trails entering the caves portion instead. It's actually in the bottom of the rocky valley, where large volcanic boulders have fallen long ago and become wedged in place. This creates a series of caves for us to scramble through. Water in drips from above, the passages are narrow, and it is DARK. We don our headlamps to get the job done, tackling the climbing with all four limbs. Honestly? I could have done more - it was a fun challenge!

It's so quiet, we surprise a few deer on the trail	Climbing up to the caves entrance
Scrambling up to the daylight	Mario down in the cave
Continuing towards the exit	Narrow, crooked passageways

We lunch in the park, watching the squirrels scurry about on a nearby fencepost. Then we begin the trek out on the winding, narrow, one-way road, back to the 101, the agricultural fields, and the route to San Francisco.

Mario's "snack pocket" (tm)

* Intermission - make a food inventory, make a meal plan for the rest of the trip, make a stop at Walmart to get anything missing. Realize that people here drive their shopping carts like they do their cars - poorly. *

Turns out, traffic around San Jose is just as bad as the traffic in LA, though with a couple less lanes to confuse things. I think we got lucky with our timing, as it seems everyone is heading OUT of the city as we are heading IN.

It's so nice arriving in a new place and feeling so welcomed - Kennedy runs at us with open arms, then drags us into her bedroom to show us her unicorn bed. Lesley and James greet us just as warmly, just without the dragging. Then we all go out for delicious tacos at one of their favorite places, El Grullense, before spending a relaxing evening at home.

We talk late into night, drink some of that Giant Rock Gin that travelled from Joshua Tree with us, and attempt to make a French 75 cocktail, but with so many substitutions that I am sure it should taste better than this. At least the gin is still good. 

There is something to be said about the luxuriousness of a hot shower, a soft, comfy bed, and that feeling of just being settled for the night.