A day to explore new places

Coyote Valley RV Park
Morgan Hill, CA

We had a wonderful day today!

We went with our friends Greg & Connie

for a ride to do some exploring.

The day started out with a hearty breakfast at Scramblz,

then Greg did the driving south on highway 101

to Pinnacles National Park.

Not knowing we were going there, I wore flip-flops,

so no hiking this time :-)

We visited the small visitor's center at the West entrance,

where we watched a film about how the Pinnacles were formed.

Spring is the best time to visit,

and even though it's technically not spring yet,

you sure would think so by the beautiful green colors of the mountains.

The Pinnacles themselves are rich with color..

From their website:

The Pinnacles Rocks are believed to be part of the Neenach Volcano that occurred 23 million years ago near present-day Lancaster, California, some 195 miles (314 km) southeast. The giant San Andreas Fault split the volcano and the Pacific Plate crept north, carrying the Pinnacles. The work of water and wind on these erodible volcanic rocks has formed the unusual rock structures seen today.

Pinnacles National Park is the only National Park that
manages a release site for captive bred California Condors.
You can read about that here if you are interested.
Currently there are 27 condors being tracked in this area.
We were lucky enough to catch one flying overhead..

He was a bit high, but I grabbed a picture and zoomed in and cropped it a bit.

 We really would like to go back and visit the East entrance, which has

a nicer visitors' center, and do a hike.
It would be nice to be closer to the top :-)

We left the Pinnacles and headed back towards Hollister.
Connie had found out about the
San Benito Historical Park which was our destination for today.
It contains a collection of historic homes, buildings, vehicles, and farm implements.

George really enjoyed the old farm tools and vehicles..

We were sorry that the buildings weren't open to see inside..
this was the old jail..

and an old saloon..

It was pretty interesting, but the signage could have used some work.
Good thing it was free admittance :-)

We ended our day with a nice dinner at Paine's in Hollister.
We had the place to ourselves!

Another great day with great friends.

Henry W. Coe State Park

Coyote Valley RV Park
Morgan Hill, CA

Today we took a drive up the mountain to

Henry W. Coe State Park.

It's only about a 13 mile drive from Coyote.

It was cold and foggy (well 50's!) here,

but as soon as we got above the fog, it was beautiful!

 Henry Coe was a cattleman back in the late 1880's.

He and several other men had homestead claims on 160 acres

and raised cattle.

Eventually, in 1953, the Coe's daughter Sada, gave her family's ranch

to the Pine Ridge association which eventually became the second largest

state park in California.

It now has over 87,000 acres of wide open spaces.

On the way up the steep windy road,

we passed by Anderson Lake, which is Santa Clara's largest reservoir.

Even after all the rain we got last weekend, you can see how low it is.

As we kept climbing higher, we saw some deer.

There was really no place to safely pull over to get a picture.

The views of the valley were spectacular from the road!

We finally got to the top, and paid our $7.00 day use fee.

There is a visitor's center, but unfortunately it was closed today.

There are several trails to hike, but we chose the Monument trail today.

It starts up the hill and ends up at a monument to Henry Coe.

We had some terrific views of the fog from the top..

We enjoyed some of the wildflowers that were popping up early..

Mostly we enjoyed the views!

George and I had packed a picnic lunch,

and we enjoyed that after our hike.

We hiked almost 3 miles, and we were pooped!

It was a great day :-)

We're still here :-)

Coyote Valley RV Resort
Morgan Hill, CA

Just an update so you don't think we fell into the Pacific :-)

Since I last posted it's been business as usual here.

I've been getting a lot of walking in,

and when the rains came I went into the fitness center and walk the treadmill.

Speaking of the rain..

it poured here 3 days in a row, 

but didn't help the drought much.

It did produce the most beautiful rainbows..

The hills are getting a bright green,

so nice to see!

George and I have been traveling down to Salinas 

to spend time with my Mom once a week.

My Mom's house finally closed after a few glitches,

and my Dad's truck sold after 3 months of sitting on a consignment lot.

Tomorrow I'm going down to spend the day helping her with tax stuff.

I also get to take my son Adam out for a birthday breakfast.

He's turning 30! Yikes!

We're getting some visitors in a month or so...

George's daughter Heather and her boyfriend John,

and my cousin Kelly and her husband Gary.

There'll be some fun times coming!

A super Super Bowl?

Coyote Valley RV Park
Morgan Hill, CA

So the hype is over :-)

Super Bowl 49 will go down in history 

as having the 'worst call ever'.

Neither one of us had teams that made it to this year's bowl game,

but we went to the party in the clubhouse.

Coyote provided the hot dogs and fixins,

and we had a chili cook off too.

Others brought sides and desserts,

so there was plenty of food to eat :-)

I wore my Eagles jersey, and George wore his Bills hat..

 Everyone had a great time!

We even got to be chili judges,

and there were two that won, and they were great!

We made it until the end,  

and there were a few other diehards who stayed.

I helped clean up, then came home to relax.

Today it's back to walking and planning our week.

Going to have beautiful weather!