Pinnacles National Park, CA

[Martin Hash]

Pinnacles National Park is an hour Southeast of San Jose. I knew nothing about it except it’s name on a list of National Parks in California but that was trigger enough that when my wife, Gwynne, and I saw a sign on the freeway leaving our friend's house that we decided to go right then. Apparently, it was declared a National Park by Barack Obama which is probably why I never knew it existed even though I grew up only 3 hours away. It’s claim to fame it's where California Condors are released into the wild. Rock climbers like it because of all the vertical spires; remnants of eroded volcanoes. There’s some bat caves, and coincidentally, I’d bought a miner’s helmet for my grandson, so I wore that.

Martin in Cave.jpg

There’s an East & West side; the former green, the latter a desert, separated by the eponymously-named pinnacles. The hiking trails are clearly marked which is good because we didn’t see another soul the second half of the day as we summited the divide and headed back to the car. Gwynne almost passed out in the 100+ degree heat hiking to the top for 9 miles without a hat nor any water. We did have 4 cans of Diet Pepsi in a penguin kid's backpack we'd also bought for our grandson, so I gave her my hat when she keeled over.

[brewster]

Dude, get some respect for the outdoors! You guys could have gotten in serious trouble heading out for that hike in a harsh environment so unprepared. She didn't even have a hat!!! Holy craps! My son the Eagles Scout and pro guide would be appalled. 25 years ago my bride to be and I hiked up from the Dead Sea over the mesa and down into the Ein Gedi oasis. There was a sign at the trailhead to bring 4 LITERS OF WATER PER PERSON! Not 2 cans of Pepsi.