San Luis Obispo to Pinnacles National Park

April 7, 2016

We have a long drive ahead of us today so we got up early and pulled out of our site at 9. The trip to San Luis Obispo (SLO) was five hours long, but really pretty (mostly) and the parts that weren’t that pretty (LA) were at least interesting. We weren’t interested in spending any time in the LA area which is why we picked a campground as far away as we could get without spending the entire day on the road. We didn’t hit any traffic in LA, thank goodness. Since we had never been to California, it was fun to see the Hollywood sign and all of the street signs that have sparked song lyrics over the years...Hollywood Blvd, Santa Monica Blvd., Sunset Blvd., and the famous Wendy Drive(?).

Hollywood sign

The drive also took us along the Pacific Coast Highway, San Marcos Pass through the Santa Ynez Mountains and past miles and miles of vineyards.

PCH

Miles of Vineyards

Arrived at our campground at around 2:30 and once we set up, we got on our bikes to explore the campground – El Chorro. The campground has a golf course on one side, a botanical garden on another side, and mountains in every direction. The campground also had some of the best birding opportunities we’ve had on our trip.

Campsite at El Chorro

 Lots of California quail!!

 American Kestrel

Western Bluebirds

April 8, 2016

Rainy day today so Library and Costco.

April 9, 2016

It’s Dave’s birthday! The sun came out so we went for a hike in the morning. We hiked the two trails within the campground…Eagle Rock trail and the Oak Woodland trail. The Eagle Rock trail is a 1.8 mile hike up the mountain. When you get to the top there are great views of the valley and the surrounding rolling hillside…and the golf course with wild turkeys interrupting the golfers game. After the hike we walked through the San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden…got some great pics of hummingbirds.

 Eagle Rock

 Halfway up Eagle Rock trail...pretty views of the rolling hills...

 ...and the wild turkeys on the golf course.

 Oak woodland trail

 Botanical garden in the campground

Hummingbird

Went back to the RV for lunch then headed to Sycamore Mineral Springs Resort & Spa in Avila to soak in one of the hillside hot tubs. The hot tub they assigned us was the furthest up the hill which was nice. The water wasn’t too hot so we were able to stay in it for the whole hour, unlike the hot springs we went to in New Mexico.

Dave enjoying his birthday soak

After the hot springs, we went to downtown SLO for a beer and dinner. We got downtown at 5 and the parking meters stop charging at 6, but they only let you pay for a half hour at a time so we put some money in the meter and went into the closest brew pub we could find…which was BarrelHouse Brewing Company. This was a cool place with a barbershop on the main level and the brew pub in the basement. They had a nice selection of beers and free pretzels and mustard.

Our brews and snack at BarrelHouse Brewing Company

Then we headed to Mother’s Tavern for dinner. This was also a cool place. We sat at the bar next to a young (30ish) guy, Jeff, from LA who frequents this place when he’s in the area. He loves it and was able to recommend food and beverage choices. He recommended the 805 beer which is a local light beer. Dave liked it, but since he prefers darker, tastier beers, he tried the Moose Drool next and really liked that one. I had a margarita and then water for the rest of the night. We had wings and loaded mac and cheese for dinner. Everything was delicious and we had a fun time talking with Jeff and later his fiancé, Aerial. They are in the construction business and were in the area to recruit students from Cal Poly. Jeff mentioned that the Tavern turns into a nightclub as the night wears on so we headed out at 10 to avoid the crowds.

 Mother's Tavern

 Moose Drool

He liked it!

April 10, 2016

Rainy day today so recovering from all the fun we had yesterday and doing laundry and prep for upcoming legs of our trip.

April 11, 2016

We’re leaving SLO today and heading for Pinnacles National Monument. We left El Chorro at 10:20 and with a stop in Paso Robles to fill up the RV (66.688 gallons at $2.29/gallon) we arrived at Pinnacles at 2:30. It was another beautiful ride but this time through the California countryside with rolling hills and lots of cattle ranches.

 This is not a painting...the drive was really this pretty.

We also passed a bunch of antique cars enjoying a drive through the countryside.

When we arrived at Pinnacles we asked if we could attach an extra two nights to our reservation since we made arrangements in Napa to arrive on April 17^th and our initial reservation at Pinnacles was until the 15^th. They said if we totally changed sites, we could stay the full week. They allowed us to pick from 6 sites that would be available for the week and the one we chose (site #84) is perfect. We’re glad we were able to change because we hated the site they had us in. 

 Entry to the park

Beautiful old oak tree beside our campsite. 

The campground offers electricity at the rv sites and that’s it. There is a dump station and water facets to replenish water if necessary. There is no service in the park…not anywhere in the park or the surrounding area. It’s a unique experience to see people not looking at cell phones or ipads. Everyone is hiking, reading books, chatting, sitting around fires and enjoying the ancient art of conversation without texting.

Our site looking toward the mountain where the condors and vultures roost

Campsite in the opposite direction – Dave preparing to make a 

fire using the hot coals from the grill.

Once we set up camp, we looked at the trail map they gave us at the Visitors Center, and picked a hike. We decided on the Bench Trail to the Bear Gulch Trail which brought us to the Bear Gulch Day Use Area. It reminded us a bit of Hacklebarney Park in NJ.

 Pinnacles to Bear Gulch Trail

  You wouldn’t want one of these pine cones to hit you in the head!

 It was nice to see green grass and pine and oak trees

 Lovely shrubbery

Dave exploring a canyon

When we were heading back on the trail, Wendy looked up into the mountains and saw two large black figures moving in a grassy area. At first we thought it was a mother bear and her cub, but on further inspection with the binoculars, we saw that it was actually two huge wild pigs. Tried to get pictures but our camera had lost its charge, so we had to rely on our cell phones. The photos didn’t come out great. Ugh!

 Two wild pigs (not a great picture at all) in the center of the photo in the grassy area

 The pigs we saw were outside the fence and not on park property

April 12, 2016

It was kind of overcast this morning so Dave walked down to the Visitors Center to see what the weather had in store for us. Since we don’t have access to any kind of signal out here, we have to rely on the Visitor’s Center for all of our information. The weather posted on the board said it was supposed to be sunny so we killed time by washing the RV windows and cleaning up the interior a bit waiting for the sun to come out. At noon the sun looked like it was trying to come out so we headed out on our hike. We decided on the Moses Spring-Rim Trail Loop, a 2.2 mile loop with a 500’ elevation gain. We drove to the Bear Gulch Day Use Area to get to the trail head. The hike was great for seeing rock formations, talus caves, and the mountain reservoir. The talus caves were formed when huge boulders, I mean huge!, fell off the cliffs and became wedged in the valley below, most likely during earthquakes. We forgot our headlamps for the cave part, but Wendy had her cell phone flashlight so we were able to see in some of the darker sections of the cave.

 This cave had stairs in some parts

 Wendy at the bottom of the stairs

 Sometimes you had to crawl to get through

 Wendy holding up the boulder

 Wendy is halfway up the long narrow staircase out of the talus cave

 The reward for the climb was the mountain reservoir

Wendy snapped this picture of a western scrub jay

Selfie along the trail

After the hike we headed back to the RV to drop off the jeep and then went to the Bacon Ranch, a homestead ranch started in 1865 and located within a 1/4 mile of the campground. The ranch buildings still standing included a 130-year-old house, a barn, and a garage (Ben Bacon had the first car in Bear Valley, so probably the first garage).

After our walk through the homestead, we went back to our homestead and cooked some chicken on the grill for dinner.

April 13, 2016

We got up early today as we planned a trip to Santa Cruz to visit Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. It was an hour and 40-minute drive so we left at 8:20 and arrived around 10. The park preserves a 40-acre grove of the tallest tree species on earth.

This sign reminded us of Lincoln Logs

We parked the jeep at the Visitors Center and went inside to get some maps. Since we brought our bikes and wanted a little break from hiking, we asked about bike trails. The docent said that a pipeline road runs the entire length of the park (3 miles) so we thought we’d try that with a few stops along the way to hike up into the trees. The docent was very informative and told us about the four different environments of the park. The San Lorenzo River flows through the park, roughly following the path of the Ben Lomond Fault. Stream erosion and fault movement are the primary forces that have helped shape the land. The northern part of the park is composed of soft sandstone and mudstone, with fossil evidence that it was once a shallow inland sea, including sand dollars and shark teeth. The southern portion of the park consists of harder granite and schist formed from magma. Three of the park’s four main ecosystems – redwood, streamside, and sandhill chaparral – were shaped as a result of these processes. The human-made grassland is the park’s fourth main ecosystem.

The docent also gave us some advice on stops we might want to make along the pipeline road. He outlined his suggestions on a map of the park. He also suggested that we watch an 8-minute movie on the park. To our amazement, when the movie started, he went and grabbed a flute and said he’d play along with the introduction music as it’s a beautiful Irish melody.

 The docent played along on flute with the introduction music to the Redwood Park movie.

We started out in the Redwood Grove Loop Trail which is an .8 mile flat loop trail and contains the world’s tallest old-growth coast redwoods, with the largest tree up to 280 feet tall and 1,500 years old.

 Tale of the Rings

 Tags on the rings show its age at that moment in history

 Tale of the Rings story

 The Grove Trail

These trees are tall!

 This is the famous Fremont Tree named after explorer 

General John Fremont who reputedly camped in the fire-hollowed base of this tree.

 This is a photo of General John Fremont, his wife Jessie, 

and their daughter Elizabeth in 1888.

  It was hard to get a good picture inside the tree, but you could fit several people in here. At one point the tree was wired for electricity and people were able to camp in the hollow.

 Banana slug – a native mollusk helps the redwood forest by 

recycling nutrients through eating green plants, fungus and decaying matter.

 The trees make you feel like you’ve been shrunken and 

are walking through a giant’s habitat.

After the grove trail, we ate lunch then got on our bikes to start our ride on the pipeline road. Our plan was to head directly to Overlook Bench (the top of the mountain); the furthest point on our planned itinerary. We didn’t get far before we had to jump off the bikes to get pictures. The ride to the top was approximately 800 feet in less than one mile. Ugh! The quads were barking!! We had to walk the bikes in a couple of steep areas but we made it to the top. Woooo!

  Bear Claw Tree – the tallest tree

 Looking up at Bear Claw tree

 Bear Claw Tree

 The Pipeline Road looked like this.

 Still feeling tiny

 This was the beginning of the uphill climb. I should not have stopped here to take this pic!!

Overlook Bench (with people sitting on it so we just took a pic of the overlook).

Then we headed back down a little way to hike the Ridge Fire Road Trail (.5 miles) to get to the Observation Deck. The trail was the sandhill chaparral section of the park so we trudged through the deep sandy trail to the observation deck. Once there we were able to see Monterey Bay and the rest of the Redwood Forest.

 Hiking through the sand to get to the observation deck

 Ridge Fire Road Trail

 The trail we followed to get to the observation deck

Sign at the observation deck

We then enjoyed a fast paced ride down the mountain to Eagle Creek Trail where the docent had said we’d see an “old growth” Redwood tree and a bench to sit. From the mark he made on the map, it looked like it should’ve been about a quarter mile into the trail but we walked about a half mile and didn’t see a bench and with all of the large trees along the trail, we weren’t exactly sure which tree he could’ve been referring to. But it was a pretty trail along the San Lorenzo River so we didn’t mind.

 Eagle Creek Trail

 Walking along the Eagle Creek Trail

 Trunks

This trip to Redwood Park made for a good workout!

Once we got back to our bikes, we headed to the parking lot and packed up the bikes and headed to Safeway to get some groceries and then the long drive back to Pinnacles. It was a fun day!

April 14, 2016

It’s a little drizzly this morning. Dave wanted to hike the high peaks trail today, so he set off on his own to do that at around 8:15. Wendy stayed behind to catch up on the blog and photos and plan the next 6-7 weeks to get back to Florida.  Dave returned from his hike around 1:30.

Dave’s account of his hike:

 I choose the High Peaks-Condor Gulch Loop and hit the trail at 8:32 from the Bear Gulch day use area, elevation 1260 ft.  This loop is 5.3 miles and has an elevation gain of 1300 ft. There was only one other car/hiker in the lot at 8:30, but he must have taken one of the other trail options because I never saw him again.  Probably due to the iffy weather, I didn’t see anyone until 3 hours later and had the peaks and birds to myself. Awe inspiring views, spectacular drop-offs, the clouds just touching the mountain tops, and no one else to be seen or heard.  I was in heaven!  The highlight of the morning was being taken by surprise when this huge Condor suddenly appeared out of nowhere.  I was along the highest portions of the trail and had stopped to rest and try to snap a photo of the swallows that were chattering and swooping all around the pinnacles, I don’t think they were happy I was there.  After a couple of minutes of just sitting there they calmed down and I also saw a turkey vulture fly by.  I packed my camera and readied to leave when I looked up and there was this Condor coming right at me, about 50 yards away!  I knew it was a Condor because of the bright wing tag it had on its left wing.  (The rangers had told me condors were the only birds in the park with wing tags.)   I watched, but also tried to get the camera out at the same time. By the time I had the camera out he had dropped behind an outcropping between us.  I searched the sky for probably 10 seconds or so, it seemed much longer, waiting for it to pop back into view.  I finally spotted it, but it was now across the valley.  Those things can really move fast!  I still was able to get some shots.  Not National Geographic, but good enough to prove it really was a condor.

Near the top on High Peaks Trail

Zoom in to view this one and the next two. California Condor, white under the wings visible in this one

Nine and a half foot wingspan!

Wing tag visible here

Grilled steak for dinner and a fire afterward.

April 15, 2016

Had a relaxing morning. We’re both reading good books and couldn’t put them down. It was also very windy this morning. After lunch we went for another hike. Wendy chose the Old Pinnacles Trail to Balconies Cave; a 5.3 mile round trip hike with a 100’ elevation. The beginning of the trail was flat and wide and made of crushed gravel. It followed a small stream that we had to cross back and forth throughout the hike by hopping from rock to rock in order not to get our shoes wet. It was a beautiful afternoon and we enjoyed the clear blue sky and pretty wildflowers along the trail.

We hiked the Old Pinnacles Trail to the Balconies Cave and the Balconies Cliffs

 Rock hopping through the streams

Cool looking rock formations

As we got closer to Balconies Cave the trail became a little less clear and we had to look for footprints of other hikers to figure out which way to go. To get to the cave we pretty much had to walk through the stream.

 This is where the trail got a little sketchy. We had to walk up this stream.

This is where Dave’s telling me, “It’s definitely this way.” 

 Does this look like a trail?

At the end of the stream there was an opening with rocks all around it 

and beyond that a gate…so we knew we were on the right track. 

Caution sign

The talus cave formed when boulders created a “roof” over a narrow canyon. Dave put on his headlamp…the only light we brought. It was completely black inside the cave and the floor was a little wet so the head lamp definitely came in handy. Again we didn’t know which way to go as the cave widened and there wasn’t an obvious path to follow.

 My camera flash lit up the room for a second. Can’t believe how good this came out as it was completely dark when I took this. You can see that Dave had his headlamp on which is the only way I knew where he was.

 I kept taking pictures.

Dave eventually saw a white arrow painted on a wall that said to go up. Luckily some people were coming in the opposite direction which made the choice obvious…we had to climb up boulders to get out.

 Dave climbing out of the cave. This is where I almost turned around.

  But this girl was behind me so I kept going and snapped this picture of her climbing up. The white arrow on the wall was for people going in the opposite direction.

We kept moving along over and under boulders and squeezing through some narrow passages until we finally made our way out. It was quite an adventure...and it wasn't over...

 And then there was more. At least this area had railings. 

 And I’m out.

 Big boulders everywhere

 Took a little squeezing to get through...

...and more climbing.

The trail then headed upward to spectacular towering rock formations: Machete Ridge and the Balconies Cliffs. This hike was challenging and beautiful!

 Beautiful cliffs

Balconies cliffs

We got back to the RV at 4, had tacos for dinner, and Dave went to a ranger lead geology program at 8.

April 16, 2016

It’s National Parks week which means free admission for everyone…which means crowded National Parks. It’s a beautiful day for it too (blue skies with a light breeze and temps in the low 80’s). There’s a line of cars outside the gate to the entrance of the park. We anticipated this so we had planned on not leaving the campground today. We rode our bikes this morning through the campground and to the Bacon Ranch Road which is an old hard packed sand road that travels through the valley until you hit a private property fence probably about a half mile down the road. You can see the Pinnacles about half way through the ride. We didn’t bring a camera or our cell phones so no pictures, but it was a really pretty bike ride.

Homestead bike ride

Tonight a group of us went on a ranger guided moonlight hike along the Moses Spring Trail and Rim Trail. Most of the hike was on trails that we’d done already, but the darkness gave it quite a different feel. The moon was at first quarter and provided a decent amount of light, but we had to use our headlamps under the trees and rock formations and in the cave. We stopped for a break at the reservoir which looked beautiful at night with the moon and stars shining on the water. It was a very cool two hour hike.

On our way to Napa Valley for a week!