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.