Camping at Pinnacles

We did another camping trip, the first since 2022. This time we went to Pinnacles National Park. Pinnacles is buried along CA RT 25, a north-south highway between US Hwy 101 and I-5, about the same position as Fresno.

It's a beautiful park, and, while we didn't really get to any of the awesome hikes, we did get the kids lots of unsupervised play time.

We met some friends from San Luis, and they had invited/arranged for many parties to be in our group on this trip. There was Sam and Aurie, our good friends, and Ken and Christine (we go way back), Meg and Paul (we just met them), and the Bulgarians, as Sam and Aurie called them (Stan and Nelly).

And, as it happened, there were many kids. Ken and Christine have two kids, aged 15 and 14; Meg and Paul have two kids, aged 9 and 4; and the Stan and Nelly have two kids, aged 5 and 3. So, Cass had a running mate (Liam), Camille had a couple of pals (Radha and Zephyr) and enjoyed keeping an eye on the youngest boy, Dian.

Watching them traipse all over the campsite was freaking great. They'd disappear for an hour, maybe more, and nobody ever got nervous or bent out of shape.

Cass and Liam would go exploring the creek in the vicinity, and came back with an elaborate story about Danger Creek, as they called it. They sat and wrote down the adventure, complete with a rather extensive map of the area.

Pinnacles is known for their California condors, and we mave spotted them soaring overhead on occasion:

The tiny hike we did go on was easy going and showcased the hills and live oak in the zone:

We did miss the caves, that looked spectacular from the photos of those who went. It was tough, since they'd closed the road and were using a shuttle bus to get there. The wait for the bus was long and crowded, and we decided to let the kids just run rampant instead of waiting and hiking more.

Below is a picture of a stairwell built into the dirt that heads down the Danger Creek. The boys would head left up the creek on their adventures, after exploring all the campsites across the river and up the other side of this tiny gorge:

The trip was very nice, if nearly six hours away, and we'd love to return and see the caves. Really, though, getting the kids some unsupervised play time was amazing enough, and making new friends along the way was equally great.