Julie and I proudly stand in front of Tramp on our morning of departure from my parents home

After 25 years of dreaming, a full year of hard core planning and 35 days of final preparation while staying at my parents’ house in Salinas, the morning had finally arrived when we pulled out of the driveway and began our big journey.  It seemed almost too good to be true after all the recent frustrations and minor setbacks but our mighty Tramp pointed his way down the road and we plotted a course towards our first night’s stay – at Pinnacles National Park.

My parents have been a huge help to Julie and I – and our host for over 5 weeks

One of our most important guidelines for this journey was to focus on the national parks, forests and other special natural places of the US and Canada while avoiding the Interstates, cities and crowds.  National Parks, of which there are only 59 in the US, are at the top of our list and we hoped to visit as many of them as possible.  Pinnacles National Park is the youngest member of the national park family, having been approved by Congress in 2013 (it was previously a national monument), although there are more 400 parks of different categories which are managed by the federal government across America.

The Pinnacles from a distance – a majestic skyline

Pinnacles is famous for its huge granite mountains with strange monolith rocks sticking skyward in different directions like the tombstones of an old cemetery.  It also features two very cool talus caves and is now the home to the huge California Condors, a majestic bird of prey that is slowly coming back from near extinction.

It was a stinking hot climb up on top of the ridge but the reward made it all worthwhile

Phew! Finally some shade to check the map and catch our breaths

We grabbed one of the last free camp sites, a pleasant and private spot amongst the high chaparral near a little creek, and then headed off on an ambitious walk to explore this fascinating place.   We headed up Condor Gulch Trail (great name!), a full-on climb in blazing sun and temperatures in the low 80’s (or high 20’s in Celsius) up and up until we made the high ridge.  This was hard work the first two hours but we loved the views of these dramatic granite mountains and survived a close encounter with a rattlesnake!

This friendly rattlesnake was resting in some shade on the side of the track – but rattled his tail to warn us away – it worked!

As we worked our way up a dusty trail we saw and then heard a rattlesnake curled up in the shade on the side of the trail, minding his own business.  In Australia we have some nasty snakes and see them occasionally but we don’t have the legendary rattlesnake, famous in old cowboy movies and every western tale, and this was both a special treat and a reminder that we need to be careful.

A rattlesnake can either make your day or ruin it – this one was one of our highlight

We bush-bashed a detour around the snake, giving him plenty of room so he wouldn’t feel threatened, although he rattled his tail repeatedly to warn us away.  Great stuff.

It wasn’t all scary stuff – these beautiful poppies added another colour to the mountain scene

Julie wisely hiding in the shade at our lunch spot surrounded by these strange rock shapes

After lunch in the shade of a massive huge granite rock that leaned over our trail we made our way up some crudely carved steps aided by a rusty old hand rail to the top and joined a few other people gawking at a large Condor perched on a rock above us, surveying his kingdom down into the valleys below.  We waited for a while hoping he would get airborne, which he eventually did, and then made our way further down the track where we were treated to two condors flying low just above us.

The majestic California Condor, this one with his tag clearly visible, sits high on his rock perch with views in all directions

These beautiful birds have a wing span of almost 10 feet and can weight over 20 pounds.  Through a loss of habitat and hunting they almost became extinct but in the 1980’s and 1990’s a captive breeding program was initiated to slowly bring them back – and all evidence shows that it is working as condors once again grace these mountains.  We later saw another effortlessly glide over our heads, patiently looking for his next meal.

The Condor has one of the longest wingspans of any bird and effortlessly glided over our heads, definitely king of the castle

After rattlesnakes and condors the next act would be tough to match up but we made our way down the steep trail to the Bear Gulch Reservoir and into the Bear Gulch Cave.  A talus cave is one formed from huge boulders rolling down into a narrow gully and becoming lodged in the crevasse.  With equal amounts of curiosity and caution we turned on our headlamps, ducked our heads and started to make our way through this dark cave.

Its not all dramatic snakes and birds, here’s a cute little ground squirrel checking us out

The Bear Gulch Reservoir provided some contrast to the hot rocky landscape

We had not idea what to expect from entering this cave – and it was the full dark, small, damp experience

Talus caves are nothing like the more familiar and larger limestone caves.  We were immediately crouching down almost on our knees, skinning through narrow cracks, shuffling through running water, making wrong turns into dead ends, scrambling over large rocks and almost always bent low to avoid banging our heads in the dark.  This was amazing stuff, a little edgy and threatening if you are like Julie and somewhat afraid of dark and small places underground, and also a longer and harder scramble than we expected.  We finally made daylight again with some relief and big smiles.

The Pinnacles were fabulous from all directions and the light changed on them as the afternoon went by

We made our way back to Tramp, completing a  10.7 km or 6.5 mile walk (we’re not sure if we are travelling in imperial or metric) with a vertical climb of 1,400 feet which took almost 5.5 hours, a bit weary but thrilled for having such a great experience.

Back in our little camping spot after a vigorous day exploring Pinnacles National Park

Back at camp we opened up Tramp and celebrated our great day.  As per everywhere we go, from petrol stations to camp sites to red lights and everything in between, people stare at the unique shape and style of Tramp and we are in constant conversation with people who are both amazed and fascinated by him.  Of course we’re happy to talk about him and all the modifications we’ve done to the truck but we can also see how it might get a little tiring once the novelty wears off for us.  Such problems to have!

As we sat around the fire on our first night, spotting cute little raccoons lurking in the shadows, Julie and I had to pinch ourselves that a dream we had held for so many years had finally begun and had started with such a fabulous day.  A new national park, a great walk, a rattlesnake, those magnificent condors and a strange talus cave, it was just perfect day.  Can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings.

One more shot of the Pinnacles – great stuff!