July 10, 2024 - Pinnacles National Park
When I was a kid growing up in California, in the area now known as Silicon Valley, I was in Y-Indian Guides. We had a nice group of kids and adults. After a year or so, we formed our own group called the Mountain Men. We went on a bunch of trips. One was to a place called the Pinnacles where we did a memorable hike that was a little too long and hot. I've never forgotten it and always have wanted to go back. I really had no idea where Pinnacles even was. So I googled the Pinnacles and was surprise to learn it is in central California and its now a national park.
After hiking Point Lobos in the morning and having brunch in Carmel, we headed east to Highway 101 where we headed southeast through the very agricultural Salinas Valley. Once we reached Soledad, we turned east again, entered the foothills and reached The Pinnacles.
California Condors are routinely seen at Pinnacles National Park but we didn't see any. We thought we did but after looking at this poster, it was obvious that we had seen Turkey Vultures.
A New World vulture and the largest North American land bird, the California Condor became extinct in the wild in 1987 when all remaining wild individuals were captured, but has since been reintroduced to northern Arizona and southern Utah (including the Grand Canyon area and Zion National Park), the coastal mountains of California, and northern Baja California in Mexico. The total world population is now 561.
Given the extreme heat, hiking one of the main trails was out of the question. But we decided to give the short Prewett Point trail -- one mile out of the Visitors Center -- a try.
Looking out over the beautiful golden hills of Pinnacles National Park.
We made it to the trail loop intersection. The heat was too much, though, and we turned back.
Our plan for tomorrow was to beat the heat by getting up early, arrive at the park just as it opened, and hike one of the main trails.
Hanging on our Airbnb's bedroom wall was this photograph of one of Italy's Cinque Terre towns: Vernazza. The amazing thing is that Lynnette and I were in Vernazza just a few weeks ago! In this picture you can see the restaurant where we had a nice lunch.
