It's a national park, about 60 miles south of Santa Cruz, in the foothills of the Salinas Valley.
My drive took me through the farming towns of Salinas Valley, and as I passed the strawberry, artichoke, and lettuce fields - harvest in full force - I felt grateful for living here.
When I arrived at Pinnacles, I checked in at the ranger's station to pay my parking fee and get the lay of the land. The park ranger robotically pointed out what were probably the two most popular hikes in the park - telling me the mileage, elevation, major land features of each hike, all while cross-referencing her comments to pictures under glass of tourists from the 1970's on the trail. I got the feeling that she had been doing this for a long, long time and that she just wanted to get back to her sandwich, which was sitting on a desk behind the partition around the corner.
When she was describing the second of the most popular trails, the Balconies Trail, she recited "Watch out for rattlesnakes" and "You should have a flashlight for the caves." Then she paused, probably because she knew exactly what was coming next: hiker across the counter squints and tilts head, wondering "do I have a flashlight?", realizes the answer is 'no', then casually looks around the mini-store to see if they sell flashlights, sees that they do, then thinks 'ha! they're not going to gyp me for a plastic flashlight - I can do the caves without a flashlight and save my money!' That was my internal dialogue. What came out was, "Do I have to have a flashlight?" Her answer was another automatic, well-rehearsed silence. Just enough for hiker across the counter to remember the tip that preceeded the flashlight one. So now I'm the pround owner of an overpriced-plastic-lime green flashlight.
As I exited the cool and dark ranger's station - flashlight tucked into my CamelBak, trail map in my hand - the sun and heat hit me and I felt happy to be here.
I chose the steepest, most strenuous route on the map, in an effort get away from as many people as possible. Non-outdoors people may not understand this concept. It's not that hikers are anti-social, but one of the reasons we get outdoors is to enjoy the solitude. That's becoming harder to find, especially on a beautiful, warm, sunny Saturday in a California national park. Besides...trudging along a narrow path through the mountains, single file among a bunch of other people doing the same thing, makes me feel like an extra in a bad war movie where the prisoners are being herded back to the enemy's camp for interrogation.
Turns out that Pinnacles has a great story. The jagged rocks, definitely out of place in this farming valley, are half of a volcano from 200 miles south of here. They got a free ride here millions of years ago due to the shifting of the tectonic plates of the San Andreas fault. Amazing. Violent. Reminds me that we are tiny. AND! Pinnacles is a breeding ground for California condors! They have red heads and large white triangles on the underside of their big-ass wings. My neck hurts this morning from looking up so much trying to spot one. I ended up seeing one near the end of the hike and got a picture of it from a distance. Trust me...her head is red and there are white triangles on her big-ass wings!
So I hiked for over three hours - covered ten miles, and climbed over 5,000 feet! I did an out 'n back along the same route - here's the profile from my GPS:
There were trail sections that were so steep and rocky that handrails were installed and small steps chisled into the rock.
The effort was worth it - this is my favorite view of the day. It's called Machete Ridge.
I also like these two rock formation. What do they look like to you?
These golden grasses were covering a lot of the hills...
...and these lichens were going nuts all over the rocks.
I got off the trail about an hour before sunset - dusty, tired, and a bit dehydrated.
I never did get to use that flashlight.
No comments:
Post a Comment