We knew it was going to be a long day, so we got an early start. The Silver Bullet was on Highway 101 and heading south a few minutes before 7:00 AM Tuesday morning. Before crossing the Golden Gate Bridge, we caught a brief glimpse of what would have made a great photo if we would have had the camera ready. The bridge itself was completely covered in fog with only the tops of the towers of the bridge showing. Within about 10 seconds even the towers were shrouded in fog as "Fog City" lived up to its nickname.
We had plans to stop at Pinnacles National Park, which was about two and a half hours down the road. The drive was scenic, and the traffic was surprisingly light. Suddenly Beth (who has a super keen sense of smell) said "I smell garlic". For as good as her sense of smell is, mine is on the other end of the spectrum so I said "I don't smell anything". Shortly after, we realized that once again her nose was working perfectly, and we were passing through Gilroy. Which with a little research, we discovered is called the Garlic Capital of, not just California, but the entire world! They have a big, smelly festival every summer. The link below will provide more information.
By size Pinnacles is a fairly small national park, covering just over 26,000 acres. Although it's been in the national park system since 1908, it's designation as a national park didn't come until 2013 (prior to 2013 it was categorized as a national monument). Although it's fairly small, and fairly new, it did have some "wow factor" that made it a nice place to spend a few hours.
A super friendly and helpful park ranger at the entrance gate gave us a couple of suggestions for a nice hike. He suggested the Bear Gulch Cave Trail to the Moses Spring Trail, which would give us about an hour hike. As the name implies, the Bear Gulch Cave Trail did involve passing through several caves that were formed millions of years ago by volcanic eruptions and earthquakes along the fault line. For the most part the caves were short, and we were able to stand and see light at the end of the cave. There were a couple of places where the lights on our phones were helpful and one place where we had to crawl a short distance on our hands and knees. I guess we're genuine spelunkers!
Beth the Spelunker!
Pinnacles was a nice place to spend a couple of hours, or more if you have the time. If you go, please note that there are two entrances (east and west), but they do not connect. We entered on the east side of the park, which is where most park services are located. The map also notes that the west entrance road is very narrow and winding.
The remaining six and a half hour drive was extremely diverse. We traveled the busy I-5 freeway, through miles and miles of almond and pistachio groves and finally into the Mohave Desert, where cars were few and far between. Although we weren't late arriving, the last hour of the drive was in the dark. Just a few miles before reaching our destination of Stovepipe Wells in Death Valley National Park we took a time out. We stopped, stepped out of the car and into the chilly night air. We saw an incredible night sky and knew instantly that we were in for a treat!
