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[El Paso & Lajitas, TX – Dec 24 & 25, 2021] To cap off 2021, we decided to sneak in another national park. Big Bend had been on my list ever since we went to Texas’ only other national park, Guadalupe Mountains, in early 2020. Both parks are in West Texas and only about 3.5 hours apart. However, we had already packed 3 national parks into that 3-day itinerary (the other two… Read More
Pinnacles National Park is small but its two entrances make planning a trip there more difficult than it should be. While the east and west roads do not meet in the middle, a lot of trails do. Therefore, it’s possible to see both sides of the park without driving yourself all the way around, which takes about 90 minutes. There are a lot of trails that intersect and loop with each other,… Read More
[Pinnacles National Park, CA / San Juan Bautista, CA, Nov 27, 2021] On our second day, we left even earlier than the day before. We knew the gate to the west entrance of Pinnacles didn’t open till 7:30 am and we were there just a few minutes after that. We had our sights on Balconies Cave, one of the most unique features of this park. Balconies Cave is a talus “cave” but… Read More
[Pinnacles National Park, CA / Soledad, CA, Nov 26, 2021] Don’t let Pinnacles’ reputation fool you – this little gem gets busy. The parking lots can fill up quickly on weekends, especially holiday ones. Luckily, we are both early birds so we were on the road just after sunrise. We knew we were getting close when the road turned into a one-lane road. The landscape just outside the entrance showed signs of… Read More
[Los Angeles, CA, Nov 25, 2021] Pinnacles National park protects a mountainous area in California’s Central Valley. The park is an easy drive from both Los Angeles and San Francisco (4.5 and 3 hrs, respectively). Nevertheless, it remains fairly unknown due to steep competition from various other tourist spots nearby and, of course, California’s bigger and better-known national parks like Yosemite and Sequoia. Pinnacles became a national monument in 1908. President Barack… Read More
