California Road Trip - Day 4

 We woke up early and drove to the west side of Pinnacles National Park to get an early start on our 4.5 mile hike on the Juniper Canyon Loop Trail. Even the road to the other side was pretty. And the sun came out...

We geared up with water, snacks, our lunches, trekking poles and set out. 

We read that the trail was difficult on the park trail map, after all one section was tagged as "steep and narrow". It climbed fairly quickly and steeply, with very pretty views along the way... 

Once we got to the top we got to the "steep and narrow" portion of the hike. There was no longer any use for our poles, so we attached them to our packs and began the climb...

And what goes up must come down...

This is where we stopped to have a snack...

Then our trail met up with the Tunnel Trail, which got its name because it goes through a tunnel...

Then we were back where we started... 

We had our lunch back at the picnic area at the parking lot before going to check out Balconies Cave. The girls we shared a table with said that the cave was full of ankle-deep water. Not having appropriate footwear for hiking and wading, we decided to spend the rest of the day driving to San Diego.

Since it was Cinco de Mayo, we stopped in Ventura for some beer and food truck Mexican food. The beer was fine but the Mexican food was truly awful! A super disappointing meal given that we were in southern California.

We were making good enough time that we made the decision to spend our last day before heading home at Universal Studios. We bought our tickets online and booked a cheap hotel within waking distance for two nights in Hollywood.

This sounds strange but I was really looking forward to staying at this very highly rated rest area just north of Oceanside. It was really nice! The restroom buildings were seriously pretty! And also seriously closed... 

Apparently there was a water issue and all the bathrooms were closed. Instead they had about 10 of the fullest and most disgusting porta potties I've ever seen. So once again we were forced to get back on the road and stay in a hotel. Thankfully we found a very nice, newly renovated one right in Oceanside...