Pinnacles Redux

After our tour of Port Chicago yesterday, we headed down to San Jose to check into our hotel room, and then spent the evening visiting one of R's college roommates and his family (read about the last time we bumped into them here). Fun time for the basketball junkies watching the All-Star Saturday Night festivities and playing board games with the girls! And the grown-ups had a great time catching up! We also enjoyed going to their church for worship service this morning and watching the first half of the Illinois game. Why only the first half? Well, they were playing (not very well) against Wisconsin, and besides we had another stop to make on our 6-hour drive home.  

And that stop would be Pinnacles National Park!  The last time we visited here was in August 2008, before Pinnacles had been redesignated from national monument to national park status. On that trip we spent the day on the eastern side, hiking to see Bear Gulch Cave. Today we were on the west side for a short hike to Balconies Cave. It was much more enjoyable in comfortable February weather as opposed to searing August heat!

Pinnacles was created to protect its namesake rock formations. It sits near the San Andreas fault, and the rocks are believed to be remnants of the Neenach Volcano, originally located 195 miles to the southeast. As the Pacific Plate moved north, it carried these rocks with it, leaving behind the rest on the North American plate near Lancaster (north of Los Angeles).

Both Bear Gulch and Balconies are talus caves which formed when large boulders fell and enclosed deep, narrow gorges. We had fun finding our way through the Balconies Cave, although two flashlights did not work well for four people.

What do you think, condor or turkey vulture?

Pinnacles NP also manages a release site for captive-bred California condors. On our way back to the trailhead, we spotted two large birds circling in the distance. What I would really like to know is whether they were condors or turkey vultures...