Pinnacles National Monument
So, today, I decided to get out of my house and take a road trip. The original itinerary was as follows: Half Moon Bay, Pigeon Point, Santa Cruz, Watsonville, San Juan Bautista, Hollister, Gilroy, Morgan Hill, Los Gatos, Saratoga, and home to Sunnyvale.
After a short IM conversation with Eric Rice, I decided to reverse my itinerary. So, I headed out and made a bee-line to Morgan Hill to hang out for a little while. After we hung out for a few hours, it was time for me to hit the road. As I rolled through Gilroy on the way out to Hollister, I saw a sign that said pointed out the distance to Pinnacles National Monument. I’ve never been to Pinnacles before. I decided to go check it out. It’s only about 30 miles past Hollister. I’m looking to get out of the house and see new stuff today. So, here we go.
I got to the parking lot at Peaks View on Chalone Creek, read the signs, took pictures of the far away Pinnacles and pondered what I was going to do. I decided that I didn’t come all this way for nothing, so I might as well at least drive up the road to visit the Visitors Center.
On arriving at the Visitors Center and looking around, I saw the trailhead to Condor Gulch Trail. So, I got an empty 24 oz Dr. Pepper bottle out of the car, decided to see if I could get some good shots with my camera at the top of the trail. It was only 1.7 miles, after all. I met up with a backpacker from Fremont who happened to be out there at the same time and we just started chatting and climbing. I had no concept when I left my house this morning that I was going to follow trails all the way around the great Pinnacles. My new buddy convinced me to continue to the top when I mentioned I’d planned to turn around and head back. “You might as well keep going,” he urged.
The hike involved a couple thousand feet of elevation gain, some of the most magnificent scenery in the West, and about five miles of walking, climbing, and staring in awe. There weren’t very many other hikers out there today—four women out for a climb and a couple from England. It wasn’t too hot, not too cold, and just what the doctor ordered.
Want to take a look? My flickr pool.
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