It's been a busy Saturday. Hawk and I got up early today to go to the beach in Santa Cruz. We've been saying we'll do that for the past few weekends but it's never worked out. Either we say we'll get up early then sleep in 'til 9am or later, or the weather's looked too cold and cloudy over at the coast, or both. Today the weather forecast wasn't ( Read more... )

In my last blog about hiking at Pinnacles National Park this weekend I wrote about the signature experience - climbing the footholds blasted into the rock. It's one we enjoy on many of our trips there. This trip we found a new signature experience in addition to that ( Read more... )

As we were driving to Pinnacles National Park and starting our hike to the High Peaks Loop I was thinking about our past visits there... which stretch back 25 years! Our first visit to the park was in April 1997. Back then it was Pinnacles National Monument, or just "The Pinnacles". ( Its upgrade to National Park status came years later, in 2013 ( Read more... )

Sunday we hiked up to the High Peak Loop at The Pinnacles, aka Pinnacles National Park near the town of Soledad, south of Salinas in California's Central Coast region.

After starting off from the west side trailhead with a classic view of the mountain (previous blog) we started the climb. It would be about 1,200' vertical to the top. The trail ( Read more... )

Today we got out for a hike at Pinnacles National Park! Finally. It's been on our let's-do-it-this-weekend list for over a month. 😅 In the past we used to go every year or two; but now our last trip there was five years agoPinnacles is a small national park outside the town of Soledad, California, 100 miles south of us. We've visited numerous times ( Read more... )

Last Sunday we drove down to Santa Cruz in the morning. We parked along West Cliff Drive, as the picture in my blog from nearly a week ago shows. We didn't just park to enjoy the beauty of the Pacific Ocean crashing against the cliffs... though that certainly would have been an option! At least 25% of the cars parked there were people just relaxing ( Read more... )

Yesterday was Superbowl Sunday, a practical holiday in the US. An estimated 117 million people tuned in. And beforehand they mobbed stores to buy drinks and snacks, such as guacamole. Oh, wait, avocados are embargoed because Mexican drug cartels are taking them over and threatened a US inspector. Watch out for blood guac ( Read more... )

Our return trip to Garrapata State Park last weekend didn't end with our hike around the Whale Peak loop. Actually, our trip to that park did, but not our day trip to the Central Coast. After returning to the car we continued further south, stopping for lunch at a busy food counter that's 87 years old. You might think, "Pfft. 87 years old, that's ( Read more... )

I know, I know, this is my third blog about hiking the Whale Peak Loop at Garrapata State Park in California last weekend (previous blogs: first, second) and I haven't even shared a picture of Whale Peak. Okay, here it is:


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The fun thing about hiking along the craggy ocean bluffs on California's Central Coast is that every bend you round, nay even every 50' in a straight line you walk, a new perspective comes into view and it's beautiful. That's why this "Whale Peak Loop" trail we were hiking Saturday (see part 1 blog) starts out being about anything but Whale Peak ( Read more... )