Pinnacles National Park
This post has been sitting in my drafts for almost two years!! No joke! I started writing it before I was pregnant with Lily, haha. That's wild. I think it's about time I finally just publish it, right??
Adam and I took a weekend trip to Pinnacles National Park at the end of 2020. I had never heard of the park before, but at the time, we only lived about two hours north of it, so we had to check it out. We learned it's not only one of the newest National Parks, but it's one of the smallest, too. We rented a yurt in the park and stayed for a night. We keep talking about bringing Lily there some weekend; I think she'd love it!
Funny story: my friend Alex sent me this pillow when he worked at Disney over 10 years ago. Lady has been one of my "main" pillows ever since then. She stays on my bed at all times and even came to the hospital with me when I had Lily.
So many trees there had tons of holes in them with these acorns stashed inside. I had never seen anything like it. Acorn woodpeckers! "The acorn woodpecker’s main food source is insects, but acorns and tree sap serve as key nutritional backup. Acorns are a critical resource, allowing the birds to make it through the winter. They live year-round in the same mild, Mediterranean climate, which gets wet but doesn’t necessarily freeze in winter; if they simply stored their acorns in piles, the nuts would mold and rot. Instead, they need a place where the nuts will dry out. The granaries are labor-intensive in both their construction and upkeep: the woodpeckers drill holes sections at a time to lodge the individual acorns, but as acorns dry, they shrink—meaning that one of their major activities during the winter is moving the acorns into better-fitting holes within the granary. A robust acorn crop can even get the birds through until fall." (source)
The rock formations in the park are so beautiful. We were hoping to see some condor nests, but maybe we didn't hike high enough. It was pretty cool seeing them soaring above us, though! They're soooo huge. They fly so high though, I didn't get any good photos of them. I did take a few of some deer near our campsite on our way back in that night.
In the morning, we made coffee + tea, eggs + veggie sausage, and then packed up and headed home. If you're in the area, or have plans to visit the park, I highly recommend staying in the yurts! I haven't seen that mug in a while! We got matching ones when we were in Hawaii and rented a vintage VW van. Ah, what an adventure that trip was, haha.
As always, thanks for reading, xo