Tales & Trails of a Traveling Wiseguy

Today we headed out to the Pinnacles— Pinnacles National Park— to hike. It's a day-adventure I've been looking forward to for a while, and finally today our schedules and the weather aligned. And oh, what nice weather it was. The park had a high temperature of 78° today, warm enough to feel, well, warm but not so hot that we'd regret being out in the sun. I mean, in the summer it gets really smokin' out there, like 100+. Thus a clear day in early spring is really the perfect time to visit. Like today!

We got off to a late start today. It wasn't until around 9:30 that we left the house. I'm not too proud to admit that I had some cold feet this morning about the hike, after planning it for the past week. The problem was I slept poorly last night. I considered whether I wanted to take an "easy day" today. I'd still go hiking somewhere; but somewhere shorter and easier. Intellectually I knew that I'd be happy once I got to the Pinnacles, but it took some pushing to get through the blahs.

The drive down to the Pinnacles was enjoyable. At 9:30am on Easter Sunday there wasn't a crazy amount of traffic. I mean, all 4 lanes in both directions on US-101 through San Jose were busy, just not bumper-to-bumper at 60mph like it sometimes gets.

42 miles out from home we reach the town of Gilroy. This is the southern end of what anyone could reasonably call the Bay Area or metropolitan San Jose. Though people do commute in from farther out than this. 😳 Beyond Gilroy US 101 narrows to 2 lanes in each direction and becomes a bit of a country highway as it traverses, well, countryside into Central California.

At 48 miles we reach the San Benito County line. Yes, 48 miles and we've just left the county. Where I grew up on the East Coast I could drive 48 miles and it'd involve 3 states. Welcome to the Western US! Government boundaries aside, we're happy to note as we cross the county line that the mountains around us are all still green.

At around 60 miles we near Prunedale. The only nice thing I have to say about Prunedale is that they finally allowed Caltrans to widen and straighten US-101 through their community so it's no longer a traffic bottleneck. Now it's a pleasure driving through the short mountain range here and dropping into the Salinas Valley on the other side.

At 67 miles we roll into the north side of Salinas. We're hungry so we stop for brunch at a couple of fast food restaurants. I eat at Carl's Jr.; Hawk gets Sonic Drive-In across the street. Then we get donuts for dessert from a nearby shop.

While in Salinas I have a... wardrobe malfunction. A seam ripped in my hiking shorts. I briefly consider a) just hiking for the day with a hole in my pants or b) just going home because I'm so pissed about it. Hawk points out we're literally right in front of a Wal-Mart, and almost certainly they have something inside I can buy and wear. I grumble about Wal-Mart fashion before, to my surprise, I find not one but three items of clothes to buy there!

South of Salinas 101 is a chill road. It's straight and level as it traverses farmland in the agricultural Salinas Valley. There's a Steinbeck museum here. He was born in Salinas and used it as inspiration for many of the settings in his books, including it being featuring literally in his classic, The Grapes of Wrath. I've read Salinas people are so pleased about it they've held book burnings in his honor.

At 97 miles we're finally in Soledad. This small town is where we turn off the highway and head up into the rugged hills of the Gabilan Mountains. You probably haven't heard of the Gabilan Mountains. But one thing interesting about them is they're so remote they're crossed than fewer roads than the Sierra Nevada range with its 14,000' peaks. And even state highway 146, which leads to the park, doesn't cross these mountains. It stops halfway across. It stops halfway across, in the park, then picks up again on the other side! The only way across Pinnacles National Park is on foot. That's how you know you're in a hard-core hiking park.

Today we got out for a hike at Pinnacles National Park! Finally. It's been on our let's-do-it-this-weekend list for over a month. 😅 In the past we used to go every year or two; but now our last trip there was five years ago.

Pinnacles is a small national park outside the town of Soledad, California, 100 miles south of us. We've visited numerous times since moving to the Bay Area back in the 1990s. Before 2013 it was a National Monument. Then it was upgraded to a National Park. What's the difference? Well, aside from technical policy differences (caution: Antiquities Act of 1906 discussed at this link 😂), the entry fees are way higher.

I set my alarm for 7am this morning and swatted the snooze button a few times before getting up. At least I wasn't feeling wrecked even after sleeping in 'til 9 like I was yesterday. We took it easy, though, not leaving the house until 9. We decided that was adequately early given that the Pinnacles isn't that far away. Sans traffic it's just under 2 hours, mostly a straight shot down US-101 into the Salinas Valley.



We took the convertible for today's drive. The weather was clear and in the 60s this morning so it was fine conditions for driving with the top down. Hawk suggested we bring our red-tail hawk toy, "Peggy", as a mascot on this trip. You may recall we added her to our aerie just over a year ago.

One thing we like to do when there's a hawk toy in the car is "flip the bird" at drivers who annoy us. This trip nobody needed to be given the bird. But I perched her on the dashboard for fun anyway. I figured if someone did deserve getting a bird, I'd just point to her as they passed.

Including a stop for an early lunch, where Hawk and I split a burger meal, we got to the trailhead in the park just before noon.



For today's hike we entered the park from the west side. That's one of the epic things about Pinnacles— though it's a small park there are two sides, and they're only connected by hiking trails. You have to pick which side to drive to when you're 50 miles away!

From the west side there's a great view up toward the high peaks that separate the park's two sides. This view is one of the reasons why we chose the west for today. Those high peaks are 1,200' above the valley floor. A trail leads up there, and there's a loop around them. Looking up from down here feels a bit like looking at a 1:5 scale model of Grand Teton. That 1:5 scale is way more approachable for hiking.

UPDATE: Keep reading as we begin the ascent to the top.

We've headed out of town this evening... and it's not just to get a shot 105 miles away from home. It's a legit, leisure road trip!

Friday Night Halfway

Tonight we're bedded down in Ukiah, CA, 155 miles from home. It was a not-hard trek up to here, well north of San Francisco along US-101. We left home at 6:45 after work and a quick supper of leftovers and arrived 3 hours later, having made a 30 minute stop for snacks and stretching our legs halfway here.

Even here is but a halfway point, too. Partly that's because there's little about Ukiah to recommend it as a destination... even though we have stayed in Ukiah a few times before! But mostly it's because Ukiah is a convenient way-station, a Friday Night Halfway stopover. Tomorrow we'll continue onward to Crescent City, on the far north coast of California, another 240 miles away.

Time for a "Vaccication"?

A lot of people right now are planning or taking "vaccications"— vacations to celebrate their vaccination. I've also seen the concept called "revenge travel". It's still too early to take revenge on Coronavirus; Hawk is fully vaccinated but I've had just 1 of 2 shots. Thus we've kept our plans for this trip cautious.

1) We are planning to travel around 1,000 miles total, but it will all be in our own car. We're not traveling via planes or trains, or transiting through airports or train stations. This cuts the risk way down.

2) We're planning outdoors, uncrowded activities; we're going hiking in remote areas! We're not visiting people indoors or even going to crowded outdoors places. This also cuts the risk way down.

3) Finally, we're planning to eat meals by buying groceries and takeout. We're not going to eat inside restaurants, or even in hotel common rooms, just because we're away from the conveniences of home. This, too, cuts the risk way down.

When will we take bigger trips again? Basically, a) after we've both had full vaccinations and ideally b) as nationwide infection rates drop from their current plateau. We did start booking an east coast trip for June earlier this week. With luck we'll see a clear path to take a flying trip before then, too; perhaps by Memorial Day.

About This Weekend...

But enough about what might happen weeks from now; let's talk about our plans for the next few days.

Saturday we'll drive up 101 out along the coast, stopping by Redwood National Park. There's a tall-trees hike there we were thwarted from being able to trek when we visited last October. We've got a permit now for it, so we'll hike it on Saturday. (Okay, so maybe there is an element of revenge travel to this trip!) After that we'll head up to Crescent City for the next two nights.

Sunday we'll visit a few waterfalls in the redwood forests around Crescent City. We've got a book of waterfall hikes with several ideas marked; really a lot more that we can do in this short trip. We'll finalize our picks in the morning based on weather and energy levels.

Monday we've taken the day off to stretch this trip out to a 3-day weekend. We've got another waterfall hike marked; this one along the coast instead of in the redwoods. We'll also visit Agate Beach at Patrick's Point State Park again as Hawk so thoroughly enjoyed picking up shells and rocks there last time. Shortly after laying out her collection of spoils, in fact, she started talking about when we could go back.