Best. Hike. Ever.

Until Steve and I started doing this hobby, I didn't even know Pinnacles National Park existed.  Before we came here, I made assumptions in my head about this park that it would probably be boring and look a lot like City of Rocks in Idaho (sorry Idaho, but your parks are "eh.").  I was very wrong and I think I may have just found another hidden gem in the park system.

We started by doing the Condor Gulch hike in hopes of seeing some of the trail's namesake.  We did take about 50 pictures of a few condor-looking birds flying above the trail and crossed our fingers that they really were condors.  Later in the day, we asked a ranger who told me it was a turkey vulture (these guys are all over the park).  Stupid condors not cooperating.  Despite the vultures faking us out, this was a great hike.  It's only about a mile long one-way, unless you keep going to the High Peaks trail intersection (then it's a little longer, and also more strenuous).  NPS classifies what we did of the trail to be moderate and that's probably because it's uphill the whole way to the overlook of the valley we just hiked through.  We enjoyed the views at the top and admittedly spent too long watching the "condors" flying above us.

Wild turkeys we saw on our way into the park.

On the hike

At the overlook

After shedding some of our layers at the car, we kicked off another hike in the Bear Gulch area of the park which was the Bear Gulch Cave Trail and we came back via the Rim Trail, so it turned out to be a 2.2 mile loop for us, and this is the reason for the blog title tonight.  This hike was AMAZING and quite possibly the most favorite hike of mine that Steve and I have ever done in any National Park site.  The funny thing is, hindsight is telling me that there was so much on this hike that I should have been terrified of (because I'm terrified of everything):  heights, tight spaces, super steep "steps" (they were really giant rocks with toe holes cut out of them), and the list continues.  Seriously, NPS is lucky they left those out of the trail description because I would have easily turned away from this.  Even though I'm terrified of everything, there was only one spot on this hike that I almost had a panic attack because I was too short to boost myself up from one toe hole to the next, very steep one.  Thankfully a very good Samaritan was there to take my hand and help me up.  Steve was behind me and there was no space to turn around, otherwise, I'm sure he would have helped me too.

But here's what made this hike amazing (besides the fact that I did it and I'm still shocked I did!).  You start off in a shady forest walking along a little creek.  You do gain some elevation in this part until you run into a cave, where you gain a lot of elevation.  This cave was so cool - it does require a flashlight to get through because there are parts that are very dark and low.  But while walking through, you see and hear a waterfall.  After the cave you literally climb your way out (see paragraph above) and head to the Bear Gulch reservoir which was a beautiful spot to stop, catch our breath, and drink some water.  Note to those who do this hike - I wish we didn't have backpacks with us because that made it difficult to get through the cave.  At one point, we had to crawl on hands and knees so that our backpacks had enough clearance.  Also, take a hiking pole - you'll need it to cross a creek via rocks in the cave.

Just getting inside the cave, you need to cross the creek on the stones.

The waterfall at the bottom of the cave

The waterfall almost at the top of the cave

The reservoir

Steve and I at the reservoir

After catching our breath, we had a choice to go back the way we came or loop back on the Rim Trail.  "Rim Trail" sounds like it's high, so I wasn't thrilled about that choice, but the thought of climbing down into the cave (where the person had to help me out of the cave) sounded a little more terrifying.  So we went with the Rim Trail and again I surprised myself because even though we really were hiking along the rim of the high peaks with a nice drop off, I found myself stopping to enjoy the view often and loving it.

So here's the bottom line - I do know my limits when it comes to what would terrify me in a National Park, but sometimes you really do have to test those limits just a little bit.  I tested them today and other than the one spot coming out of the cave, I never was scared on this hike and Steve and I truly enjoyed ourselves.  The entire time we were in the cave we couldn't stop saying "this is so cool!"  "Cool" is an understatement, and I'm sure the pictures don't do it justice, but if you ever find yourselves visiting Yosemite, take the two hour detour to see Pinnacles and do this hike.  If I can do it, you definitely can!

On the Rim Trail 

Steller's Jay - they have beautiful blue feathers that are more vibrant in real life than in this picture.

We planned for the entire day in the park, but we were actually done by lunch time with these hikes.  The other hikes in the park are strenuous and that usually is due to significant elevation gains, more so than what we already did on both of those hikes, and Steve and I like to skip those.  We realized we'd be super early for hotel check-in, which is a very rare treat when Steve and I travel.  We usually don't get dinner until about 7 and we usually don't get to our hotel until 9 or later.  On the ride, we were talking about how nice it would be to check in, blog, write postcards to T.R., and just relax before dinner.  That sort of happened...

Along the way, I fell asleep in the car (it was a 2 hour drive from Pinnacles to our hotel), and when I woke up, Steve let me know there was a National Wildlife Refuge on our way to the hotel and we weren't far from it.  Feeling like we didn't do enough today, we decided to stop.  There are a few hikes in the section of the refuge we were in, but we actually didn't do any.  We did the 5-mile auto tour which was pretty neat.  We saw a ton of birds and ducks, and then at the end of the tour we had a great time watching several jackrabbits.

Egret

Anyone know what this is?

Same bird as above, and not the best picture, but I love that you can see all the colors on the wings!

Action shot - this jackrabbit was running towards us - so cute and so fast!

Poor jackrabbit has a broken ear.  :-(

We finally checked into the hotel around 3:30 where we changed, wrote T.R.'s postcards, then we headed out to run a couple errands and go eat dinner.  This is a record for us to eat dinner by 5:00 while we are traveling!  We ate at a restaurant called The Branding Iron and it was so delicious and we are so full!  While talking to our waiter, we were able to explain that we are from Baltimore and we were here on vacation and Trip Advisor's ranking of their restaurant is why we came.  They were so happy to hear all of that, so they gave us free chocolate cake after our meal.  They just won me as a customer for life, assuming I'm ever back in Merced, CA!

And that's our day and this is probably the earliest I have ever had a blog done!  Tomorrow is a very exciting day for us - we are going to Yosemite National Park!