Pinnacles National Park

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Destination: Pinnacles National Park
Duration of stay: 3 days, 2 nights
Cost: $23 per night at campsite, national parks pass covered entry

On Sunday, I went to visit Pinnacles National Park. There are two entrances to the park, but they are not connected. So, if you intend on camping, you need to go to the east entrance. Also, note that there is no cell phone coverage in the park. You likely will not get signal back until you go 30 miles to either Hollister in the north or King City in the South.

My visit was not during the peak times for the park (December-January for wildflowers, Spring for a much more 'lush' experience). It was hot. 102°F after about 1pm. Pretty much the only thing to do in the afternoon was to hang out by the pool or take refuge in the caves.

My hiking paths for my visit. Orange is day one, Green is day two, and Blue is day three.

Day 1 pictures:

Bear Gulch Reservoir 

Bear Gulch Reservoir 

This would be awesome to climb.

Day 2 pictures:

This was my wake up call on Monday.

Some deer were nearby as well.

Went to brush my teeth, came back to the turkeys blocking my way.

THIS is a pine cone!

Some more deer on the path.

Path to the cave entrance.

Entrance to the Balconies Cave

Some low ceilings.

Very fun climb through the caves. This was the exit from one of the sections.

Some more low ceilings

The cave was formed by huge boulders falling in a crevice. They seem rather precariously perched.

I think this is an acorn, but it looks quite different from the ones I am used to.

Can you see the parking lot down there? That was where I ate lunch.

Zoomed in on the parking lot.

Day 3 pictures:

This is the "Overlook" on the map.

Some of the pools at the Overlook. They were empty.

That is fog off in the distance.

A flower down by the visitor center. Hard to believe something can bloom in these temperatures.

Made it to Marina!

Taken from the highest point in Marina I could find.

So, we made it! The trip took us four days of driving (41 hours for just the drive time), covering 2781 miles. We arrived in Marina around 1am. Needless to say, we just crashed when we arrived.

I took a few pictures while we were traveling, but they really don't do these places justice. You will have to just go visit them for yourselves!

The dunes of Grand Mere State Park in St. Joesph Michigan. 

Climbed the dune!

Quinn's Mom suggested we make a stop at exit 22 off of I94. I used to leave in Stevensville, Michigan (exit 23) so I was familiar with the area. What I didn't realize was that this is where the dunes were that I used to climb as a kid with my Dad. It has been probably 15 years since I was last there. We only climbed one dune because of the time crunch, but it was such a beautiful afternoon.

My first dollar!

The dollar was from my friend John Schofield (he kindly offered us a bed for the night in Kansas City). It is for a class I am taking while on the road, which teaches you how to start a business. He was the first person of the people I sent the email to, followed shortly by my other friend John Palgut. We promptly spent this dollar getting onto I70 out of Kansas City.

This is from the backyard...simply breathtaking.

Our next stop was Fort Collins, Colorado. This day was a little shorter than the first, but it felt like the flatness of Kansas would last forever. It really sinks in how big the United States is when your GPS says "Stay on I70 for 546 miles".

When we got to Fort Collins, we met up with Quinn's Mom, Step Dad, and three border collies (Zeus is pictured above). We went downtown and had a wonderful dinner (it was also my birthday!). Tons of fun and a very unique town.

You can't see it, but the stars were AMAZING!

This is my failed attempt at taking a picture of the stars from our campsite in Moab, Utah. This is one you will have to see for yourself. We even saw a few shooting stars!

View from our campsite.

"Park Avenue" - Arches National Park

Getting ready to hike Park Avenue

Standing in what looked like a river bed.

This is as close as he would let us get before flying off.

After our hike through Park Avenue, we hopped in the car and drove the last leg to Marina. We went through Las Vegas, but didn't stop (maybe next time). We saw it rain in the Mojave Desert, which was pretty cool.


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Above is our route.

Not sure where I am heading next. For the moment, I am quite content NOT being in a car for a while.

Lets start this shit up!

Above is one of my favorite videos. It is perfect for beginnings.

We woke up at 6am to go eat at the Northside Grill in Ann Arbor as a farewell breakfast before hitting the road. Our first stop will be to Kansas City to visit my friend John. Only 11 hours of driving today!

Destination set. Start the Countdown!

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So, it has been decided that the first stop in my journey will be Marina, CA. Due to an unfortunate situation, I will be accompanied by a delightful companion: my girlfriend. We will be driving to Marina where she will be spending the next year and a half as a Scientific Illustration graduate student at Monterey Bay. She had planned on taking the trip by herself, but got into a car accident (she is fine) and totaled her car. So, we get to travel together!

The past two weeks have consisted of packing stuff to take to my parents place (special thanks to my Dad and Mr. Kellicut for coming down to help!), selling some items on Craigslist, throwing stuff out, taking stuff to Salvation Army, fixing a punctured tire, cleaning my apartment, worrying about how I still have too much stuff, getting my car towed to fix a cooling fan, and generally freaking out while simultaneously getting excited for this trip. We will be leaving Saturday morning, bright and early. Just in time to fight the Labor Day traffic :)

Wish us luck!

Places to visit

View Places to visit -USA in a larger map

Above is a map with the places in the United States (along with a couple in Canada) that I would like to visit while on my trip. I likely will not hit them all, as there are enough places marked for three to four trips. I am still trying to decide which direction to go first, but I will be hitting the places in the north first, then cycling down south as it gets colder.

I will be using another map to track my actual trip progress. I will put that up as a separate page.

I am still taking suggestions on places to visit, so feel free to send them my way! There are a few places rather void of dots.