Big Sur

Today the group wanted to go to Carmel for shopping and dinner.

Downtown Carmel

Carmel

Carmel is a small town with lots of nice stores but nothing that really interested Nancy and I so we headed down the coast for Big Sur.

Hwy 1 between Carmel and Big Sur has to be one of the most scenic drives anywhere.

It was very windy and the surf was running 10-15 ft.  When we stopped to take a picture at one overlook the wind was blowing so hard I had to use all my strength to close the truck door.

Point Sur Lighthouse

 Unfortunately, the Point Sur Lighthouse is not open for tours on Monday so we could not get very close to it.

Point Sur rock

 On the way back to Watsonville we stopped at Moss Landing again to view the wildlife.

Lots of birds

The End

Pinnacles National Monument

Nancy and I decided to avoid the crowded coast today and headed inland to Pinnacles National Monument.

This is a park you have to hike to experience the beauty, so off we went.

 There are lots of unusually shaped rocks, mostly of volcanic origin and vertically oriented by ground upheaval.  The park is located on the San Andreas fault.

The trail we took included several tunnels, caves and crevasses.  Some were quite narrow.

Lots of tight squeez

Looking up from the bottom of the canyon

Lots of rock climbers here

Between a rock and a hard place

A small reservoir at the top of the trail

 I wonder why they call it Pinnacles?

Looking down the stairs

Strange red trees

The red coating  looks like plastic but is natural

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More rock climbers

Holy rock

Look for the climbers

Made it to the top

 It was quite warm today since we were away from the coast. Temperature was about 88 deg in the sun so the caves felt very nice.