Pinnacles National Park - part 2

On Friday, after our first hike on Condor Gulch Trail to the overlook (https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2022/04/pinnacles-national-park-part-1.html), we decided to drive to the end of the road and, if there was a parking spot available, do the other trail we had been interested in doing...

Moses Spring - Rim Trail Loop (2.2 mi loop, 1.5 hours, elevation change 500 ft): Moderate. This loop is a good choice for rock formations, talus caves, and the reservoir on a short hike and also a good choice for children. Bear Gulch Cave is open seasonally. Flashlight required in cave.

We had prepared by bringing flashlights, and, you probably have already figured out, there was a parking spot, just *one* parking spot available when we got to the parking lot (and immediately after we took it, 2-3 other cars circled through looking for a spot).

Map at the trailhead. The dotted part is through the cave -- we could stay on the Moses Spring Trail and skip the cave, but we were interested in seeing the cave.

Informational sign at the trailhead

The sun had come out and the trail was lush and green.

A ground squirrel was posing (eating) on a small branch next to the trail...

He wasn't scared of us at all...

Unlike ones we encountered at Zion National Park last year (https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2021/05/tuesday-to-zion-part-1.html), these did not seem to think that humans should feed them.

When we got to this opening, we thought this was the beginning of the cave...

... but we didn't need flashlights... hmm... that wasn't what we were expecting!

Oh, this must be the cave we were expecting!

Brilliant green moss on the rocks at the entrance. We got around the big puddle of water and entered the cave...

A little past the entrance -- in places there were holes through which light entered the cave.

You might recall from the description of the trail, it indicated "talus caves" -- in case you don't know offhand what that means (I didn't), here's a quote from Encyclopedia Brittannica:

Talus caves are openings formed between boulders piled up on mountain slopes. Most of them are very small both in length and in cross section. Some boulder piles, however, do have explorable interconnected “passages” of considerable length. (https://www.britannica.com/science/talus-cave)

Sure enough, there were boulders piled up!

Sometimes the passage was rather narrow, and sometimes the ceiling was quite low.

It may be hard to distinguish but we came to an area where steps were carved and there were metal railings.

We were all by ourselves the whole time we were in the cave (probably about 10 minutes) so we could hear the water of the stream running through the cave:

At the end of the cave, there was a particularly low passage that required either very low stooping or crawling (Carl has his light in his hand that is providing the light on the rock next to him).

When we got out, we had a beautiful sunshiny view of the rocks that made up the top of the talus cave that we had just traversed.

We still had more of a hike, but that's a story for another blog post!

Pinnacles National Park - part 1

We knew from campground reviews of our current location that we were near Pinnacles National Park, but we'd never really heard of that park, and didn't know what to expect. We did a little reading on it and found that it could be entered through either the east side (closest to where we are parked) or west side. One of the reviews on the campground reviews site (https://campgrounds.rvlife.com/regions/california/paicines/san-benito-preserve-8847) said, 

Tip for Other Campers:

Unless you're into long hikes, the East Entrance to Pinnacles NP closest to the park has very little to offer. If you want views of the iconic rocks with only a short walk, take the wonderfully scenic drive to the West Entrance.

We decided that we were up for a hike (maybe not a *long* hike) and it was a shorter drive (about 30 minutes) to the east entrance. Friday was supposed to be rainy in the morning, but we had also read that the parking areas often fill up by early morning, but sometimes those early hikers leave by soon after noon and more spaces open up. So, about noon, we drove to the east entrance of Pinnacles National Park, stopped at the Visitor Center to pick up a map, and drove toward Bear Gulch, with the plan to hike the Moses Spring Trail through the Bear Gulch Cave Trail to the Bear Gulch Reservoir, and return on the Rim Trail.

When we got to the parking areas around Bear Gulch, we found that the parking that was a little ways away from our desired trailhead appeared to be full, so we drove on to the parking *at* the trailhead and found it only had space for about 8 vehicles and was full. We returned to the other parking, and though it appeared to be full, we pulled into an area that we thought was all for handicapped vehicles, and found one spot open (non-handicapped) and pulled in!

Since we were further from the trail we had planned to take, we decided to take another trail we had considered that left from right near where we parked, Condor Gulch Trail, to a viewpoint. The brochure indicated:

Condor Gulch Trail (1.7 mi one-way, 1-1.5 hours, elevation change 1,100 ft): Moderate to overlook, strenuous beyond. This trail offers spectacular views of the High Peaks, whether you hike just a few minutes or the entire trail. The overlook is one mile from the trailhead.

Good! That information agrees with the brochure! (I took this picture at the end of the hike when the skies had cleared a lot!)

Starting up the trail - it was overcast but there were a few areas of blue sky peeking through.

This tree was riddled with holes...

We guess a bark borer beetle

A thistle along the path...

... and a Mariposa lily

So pretty and delicate (the cup was about 1.5" across)

We had a few sprinkles of rain along our hike, but the areas of blue were continuing to grow.

There were majestic rocks...

... all around us.

It is so hard to get a perspective of how magnificent they were.

When we got to the overlook, it overlooked the area where we had hiked up - and the sun was coming out to show us the area even more beautifully.

One picture from the hike down -- when we're heading back, we take fewer pictures because (1) we already saw this and figure that we already took pictures, and (2) we aren't needing to take as many rest stops which are generally our good opportunities for pictures!

A couple of screen captures from Carl's Fitbit app -- the route on the trail...

The bottom graph shows the elevation gain -- and correlates closely with heart rate and times of burning calories!

When we got back to the Jeep (about 3pm), there were a 2-3 available parking spots, so we wondered if there might be parking at the trailhead for the other trail we wanted to take... we decided that we would drive to the end of the road, and, *if* there was a spot available, we'd take the other hike, but if there weren't we'd be happy with what we'd done.

Check the next blog post for "part 2" of our visit to Pinnacles National Park!

Cutting down a tree in the campground and an earthquake to boot!

When we walked out Thursday morning to take the trash, we could hear a lot of chainsawing going on... we walked to where we could see what they were sawing...

We were a ways away...

Zoomed in... he had cut out a chunk, and continued cutting from the other side...

... it was starting to move...

***CRASH!!!***

They continued cutting on it and then grinding up the limbs the rest of the day!

<<< I had written the above text and put pictures in on Thursday evening in preparation for posting on Friday... later in the evening (10:02pm, to be exact), Gracie started shaking and rattling... we both said, "What was that?", and Carl started doing some research...

A magnitude 3.5 quake 13 km south of Tres Pinos, California. Tres Pinos is not far away... and we are south of Tres Pinos...

The teal dot marks the spot along the San Andreas Fault

The orange star marks the epicenter

The red star marks the epicenter -- it indicates depth of 4 km

We plotted on Google Map where we are and where the epicenter was located and used Google to measure the distance between -- 5181 feet away... about a mile away.

So, it was pretty close!

We asked our neighbor if they had felt it, and they said they had not... but when we described the time and what it felt like, they had felt it, but their Great Dane dog was walking around, and they just figured that she had laid down heavily and that caused the shaking in their rig!

Preparing a turkey dinner

I blogged a few days ago about getting a turkey with Carl's daughter Pamela's certificate (https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2022/04/catching-up-on-last-couple-of-days.html). On Wednesday, it had finally thawed completely and we made turkey dinner!

First - some of the local residents (deer) right outside Gracie (that's Gracie's shadow just in front of them).

Carl mixing up the dressing while the turkey was baking. We decided to make the dressing in the slow cooker (Instant Pot) since the oven was full, and the two burner electric stove top would be making gravy and mashed potatoes!

We think it is done! You may notice that it is upside down - when the breast was done, the thigh meat was not yet up to temperature, so we turned it over in hopes of getting the underside better cooked through...

Carl, the carving machine! We really like the pull-out counter when we're making a big meal!

Slicing the breast meat

Beautifully cooked and cut breast meat!

Turkey dinner with green beans, dressing, mashed potatoes, and gravy

We went for a walk in the afternoon (looking for a trash bin as our trash can was filled to overflowing)... you may be able to see the ground squirrel in the middle of the picture...

... here's a zoom in on that picture -- you can see the one sitting up in the foreground, and you may be able to see the head of another near the top left of the picture. They are all over the place, and have tons of holes dug all over the grassy areas, and in the roadways too!

Some funnies

Some funnies that I've collected recently...