One places everyone seems to mention when you
ask about good exploration spots is Pinnacles National Monument. The park is over an hour south of San Jose and is famous as the last remaining home to the endangered California Condor. The ragged cliffs that dot the landscape here are what remains of the base of a volcano.Typically when we're setting out an adventure like this past weekends we look for a hike that is somewhere between 3-5 miles (preferably a loop) with fun features the whole family can enjoy. Bear Gulch Cave Trail sounded like good choice. The trail took us past the colorful vertical rock faces that are so appealing to climbers. (Just thinking about the drop offs makes me nervous.) In addition to the rock walls there are drop offs between large boulders along one side of the trail. Not quite sure where the wholes go. My guess is that there
are caves beneath.Part way up to the Bear Gulch Reservoir are a series of talus caves. These caves are formed when large blocks of rock fall. By large I mean bus or house sized blocks. Between the huge rocks there are pathways most of which are pretty comfortable to walk through. (We were fortunate that there was never more than a couple of inches of water on the cave floor.) There are colonies of Townsend's bats in the caves but it seems they've moved on already this spring. We didn't get to spot any, too bad. We passed beneath precariously balanced boulders, climbed steep stone steps past roaring underground waterfalls and finally reached the end of the trail and lunch next to a crystal clear lake!
Our loop back took us high up into chaparral country with open meadows and gnarly oak trees. Spring so the wildflowers were blooming. Lately, I've been enjoying photographing the flowers and their habitats. I'm h
oping to plant a native wildflower garden one of these days. In addition to flower spotting we marveled at all the interesting rock formations. We took turns giving names to the various rock formations. (I think this one ended up as Monkey Face Rock.)
We've been savoring our chance to learn about all the differences in the landscape and it's flora and fauna. Already we have some favorites. Acorn woodpeckers are always a treat to spot. Usually we notice their tell tale cache holes. These colorful woodpeckers drill quarter size holes in the bark of trees and then fill the holes with acorns for winter. The bird's themselves are very dramatic to look at with their bright red cap, clownish black and white faces, and unusual white eye.Ironically our most exciting wildlife spotting took place at the parking lots. While waiting
for the shuttle bus to take us back to our car I saw a rather large bird soaring directly overhead. Given the size, white patches on the wings and yellowish orange head it could be none other than a California Condor! Never happier to have a good set of binoculars. Unfortunately, I was the only one in the family who got to see it. (In full disclosure I should say that the picture at the top is from the Pinnacles web site.) Nye and Arch did get to see a bevy of California quail and a very brazen male doing his courtship song and dance on a log next to the restrooms. (You have to admit they are awfully cute with the little deely bopper's on their heads.)Next time we're going to head up to see if we can't see more of the condors. We had a spectacular time at Pinnacles!
All the best,
Sara, Nye and Archil
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