Pinnacles National Park, Rte 1 Coastline and San Francisco!

Deb
Apr 7
2 min read

We stopped at a COE after Death Valley because the drive to Oakhurst near Yosemite would have been very long. It was on Lake Success in Porterville. The water hookup was 70 feet away and we had just enough hose so we had to get creative to level so we could use the water.

The drive was changing from the desert to rolling hills and we started to see the sheer number of crops being grown. Oranges and miles and miles of almonds to name a few!

Finally reached Pinnacles National Park campground on the 30th! No cell service and I could not get the rental car fob to open the door after I locked it so the campground was treated to our car alarm that I could not get to stop. 😩

We learned people flock to Pinnacles to hike. We are not in hiking mode so we saw as much as we could. What we saw was very nice!

A lot of tectonic activity millions of years ago created the landscape and faults in the earth. As a result some interesting pinnacle like rock formations exist.

California Condors flew way about our heads but not close enough to get a photo but we did see their cousins the Turkey Vultures…and some turkeys lol!

While at Pinnacles we went for a drive along the coast on Route 1 towards Big Sur. What amazing ocean views! We ended up driving a long distance and towards the end we came upon a colony of elephant seals. Oh my! They had been hunted for their blubber and the numbers were very low but they have come back! There is about 25,000 in this colony!

Seals and a sunset what a perfect day. We had some rain but the sun came out and gave us a pretty sunset.

The next day we ventured out to San Francisco. I really wanted to see the Golden Gate Bridge. It was just as cool as I imagined.

The bridge construction began in 1933 and took 4 years to complete. It was named Golden Gate because it was built at the entrance to San Francisco Bay which is called the Golden Gate Strait. The color is “International Orange” to give it high visibility for ships in the fog. The consulting architect Irving Morrow rejected the Navy’s request for it to be blue and yellow stripes because he wanted the bridge to complement the surrounding hills. The bridge is continuously painted 365 days of the year. They have installed nets on each side to deter people from ending their lives by jumping off the bridge.

San Francisco was just unbelievable. I always read about the steep streets but driving on them really hit home. It’s a beautiful city! We went to Fisherman’s Wharf and had dinner at Scoma’s. It was delicious.