Thursday, May 16, 2024

California Road Trip - Day 3

 Between the rain and lack of rest stops on Hwy 1, we had to stay in a hotel in Fort Bragg for the night. It was a fine hotel but it did have a super cute retro gadget in the lobby...



May the 4th was a very rainy day but I still managed to get a few pics along the way south towards San Francisco... 









We drove through this little town and saw this bakery with a ton of people outside. We figured it had to be good, so we stopped. Our sausage pizza slice was delicious and worth standing out in the cold to eat...



When we arrived at the lookout, this is what we saw first...


Then the clouds descended a bit and it got worse...



As we drove back down the hill and out of the clouds, the view got better... 




When we got to the park, we were surprised (but shouldn't have been) that there was also a battery to protect the port...



There was also a fence full of padlocks like in Paris...





We decided to pay the toll and cross the Golden Gate Bridge rather than go the long way round...


The route back to Hwy 101 took us through a bit of the city where we stopped for homemade Chinese dumplings and cold 5-spice beef. And they gave us complementary sesame balls for dessert... Yum!




The weather started to clear as we got further south, so we decided to beat feet and head to the east entrance of Pinnacles National Park to do a bit of hiking before dark.

Not only did we make it but we were able to hike the 2 mile Condor Gulch Overlook and the 1.5 mile Bear Gulch Cave and got back to the van just as it was getting dark...












You can't really tell but the two faint spots in the sky are two California condors circling! As a kid growing up, I always assumed they would be extinct by the time I was an adult. It is kind of amazing that conservation has saved them... 































The two park entrances are an hour apart and the nearest rest area was an hour and 15 minutes south of the park. The only campground in the park was right where we already were but unfortunately according to the website, all the sites were full. 

But we decided to check anyway. As we drove through there was one site with no reserved tag on the post and no gear in sight. So we took a chance and set up for the night. God knew we needed a good night's sleep and provided us with a lovely camp site right where we were... 






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