Sunday I went to Pinnacles National Park in the hope of catching a condor. The worst thing they did was make this place a national park. The name national park automatically attracts tourists and the site is small and doesn't have the infrastructure for the hordes that descend on it. I knew getting in would be challenging so purposefully came later in the day but still waited 45 minutes to get a parking space via the eastern entrance. I started from Bear Gulch and hiked up the High Peaks trail to the crest. The temps were mid to high 80s just bearable. There is a cool short trail that clambers through the Pinnacles crest with steps cut into the stone and handrails. This is the highlight of the park and the most interesting section. The monoliths are massive and look very dramatic especially from the west. From here I continued down the tunnel trail with one tunnel and down to the western side parking lot. I then took the Balconies Trail to the cave trail that was short but kind of cool. From here I followed the Old Pinnacles Trail along a dry creekbed back to the west side. A mile trail connector leads you to your parking lot through a surprising lush canyon with some small flow of water. My hike effectively used up all the trails in the center of the park, there is a southern hike to some boring peaks and a northern hike that looks even worse through the northern drainage of the creek, I returned through. The park in general looks like a climbers dream but I was surprised how few people were climbing. I also unfortunately did not even see a condor so the chance of me capturing one was virtually nil. I still haven't had a chance to see one of these birds in the wild.
The next day with the mercury rising I went to Montana De Oro which should be renamed Montana De Conejo since there are so many damn rabbits. The coast was socked in with pea soup fog as I hiked Hazard Peak which is popular among the mountain bike set as I only saw one hiker but many bikers. I got pretty wet with the fog, going up and was surprised at the quantity of poison oak near the beach on the slopes. The top was slightly clear but otherwise covered in fog. The peak doesn't seem too impressive as it has a gradual ridge to a default top point. The next peak was more enjoyable going further in the park and hiking a steeper trail to Valencia Peak which is a higher elevation and had better views as it was later in the day and less fog. the only negative was the top section of the ridge was covered in shitty loose rock which was more annoying then anything else. I had started early and wrapped up all my hiking by 11 but still got stuck in Memorial Day traffic on the way back to the metropolis..