Perfect day at Pinnacles

San Francisco is a noisy city. Noisy during the day AND at night. This morning, I awakened prematurely to the sound of a garbage truck doing its rounds. Slam, bang, roar! That, coupled with bed covers that were too heavy and warm, resulted in me getting up early. As I left the city going south, I got caught in some rush hour traffic. The northbound traffic was much, much worse. I wonder if people are excused when they show up late for work everyday? As I traveled down US Hwy 101, I passed through the town of Gilroy, garlic capital of the world! And, yes, I smelled garlic!

My fun destination of the day was Pinnacles National Park. I had visited this park twice in past road trips, and my plan for today was hiking a 1.5 mile loop trail to Bear Gulch Cave. The weather was perfect...sunny in the mid-70s and blue skies. It made for picture perfect scenery of the rocks and spring foliage.  Can you see the rock climbers in the third photo?

 

The cave was really cool...literally.  The temperature inside the cave was much lower than outside it. It was fun negotiating the water hazard and climbing up the rock steps to the exit. It was pretty dark for most of the cave walk, but I had brought a flashlight to see the path.

As I walked along the trail, I had my eye out for wildlife.  I was not disappointed.  Well, maybe a little.  I was hoping to see California condors, but all there were in the skies were turkey vultures.

Besides a lone lizard, the rest of my wildlife sightings were birds.  California quail, Western scrub jay and acorn woodpeckers.  It was the first time I had seen acorn woodpeckers, and they were busy working on their granary tree...where they store their acorns for future meals.

Well, tomorrow morning I'll be making the drive to Los Angeles. I'll be spending a week there, seeing the sights and having more fun. This road trip has gone pretty good so far. Who knows what surprises might be in store for me in the City of Angels.