Pinnacles National Park

Part 2 in my National Parks blog series

I woke up at 4:30, or 7:30 on my East Coast body clock. I had already organized my daypack the night before, so there was plenty of time for my morning Bible read and breakfast--fruit and German dark bread. Ugh. Well, you see, all they had at Trader Joe’s for non-refrigerated quick breakfast food was sugar-topped gluten-free strawberry muffins, iced coffee cake, and, well, German dark bread. So either food for an eight-year old’s birthday party or German dark bread.

I got to the park early having been warned by many a visitor on various forums and blogs to arrive by 7:00am or risk not finding a parking space. And to avoid the heat of the day. After a 6:30am departure from my hotel, I arrived to find…No one at the gate. No one in the lot. It was strange and wonderful to have the whole national park to myself. And it stayed that way for more than an hour.

The drive through the valley, up the foothills steeped in dry grass and speckled with oak trees, stirred my anticipation. There were birds and rabbits (jackrabbits, with those long ears, and cottontails) and more birds hopping and skipping and flying out of the long grass as I passed by. More of the same as I began my hike, along with mule a family of mule dear in the meadow and several gray foxes along the trail. Honestly, it felt like Bambi was going to pop out at any moment.

Then I learned my word of the day: chaparral. This is an ecosystem with grassland, low shrubs, etc. that is home to a very diverse and active community of cute little animals and birds. Having the place to myself, I found myself stopping often to look and listen. As I got to higher elevation, I saw many soaring birds finding lift in the valley thermals, and even a Condor.

Pinnacles is just a magical, otherworldly place. You basically are climbing up the time-worn remnants of a 23-million-year-old dormant volcano. The molten rock inspires with its high reaching peaks, invites and, at times, forbids travelers to pass. The trail had to be carved out of and, at times, through the stone. Rangers cut trails, built bridges and retaining walls, notched steps into some of the high rock and installed rails in the steep narrows to make this majestic place accessible to the rest of us. Hats off to the park rangers.

One note on that. I found it interesting that there was no ranger at the booth even when I left. No one to collect the park fee. With all these drastic cuts to budgets and staff, I just wonder if this is their little way to say what happens when you do that.

I met some great people today.

There’s Jason of Ohio and his family of five touring several California national parks on the occasion of his younger daughter graduating high school. We had a chuckle about the early start. He, too read all the warnings about getting to the parking lot by 7:00 am. So he rallied the troops at 6:00 am, got out, and arrived to find what I found, no one. We just laughed. Classic dad move.

I came across three young men who live in the area. One told me they try to come out once a month to hike it, that it’s always changing with seasons and weather, that he can’t help but take massive amounts of pictures every time.

Then there’s Paul, the retired geology professor who is hosting me at his Airbnb cabin on a river adjacent to Sequioa National Park. He met me at the gate of his 340-acre property and led me down, down, down to my secluded little cabin.

I asked if he is from the area. He shared that he has been coming here ever since he was two years old. Every summer before he went off to college, his parents, both school teachers, would pack a station wagon with a tent and the kids and head to Yosemite for six weeks, then Sequioa for another six weeks. He literally grew up here. When he retired, he bought this property. His spirit adds texture to the place, and to the experience.

I don’t have the space to write about all that happened today. Early morning smoke from Canadian wildfires (that dissipated, amen!), narrow winding roads that reminded me of driving in Ireland, the no-internet, no access to my online trail map fiasco, and more. But I just love that I had eight stories before 7:00 am, before I even started my hike. That’s a good day!

To learn more about Pinnacles NP, check out the National Park Service website: https://www.nps.gov/pinn/index.htm

Next stop: Sequoia.