Pinnacles : south wilderness trail
David & I spent the day hiking in Pinnacles National Monument on the South Wilderness Trail. The drive took about 80 minutes, mostly because every traffic light in Hollister defaults to red as soon as any cars get near it. We parked in the overflow parking lot, at the far end of the camp ground, and started off on the Bench Trail. After about a mile, the South Wilderness trailhead forked off. The trail is about 3 miles each way. The trail itself was fairly easy, with few elevation changes, and 3 relatively simple stream crossings. The highlight was definitely the wildflowers. We saw tons of poppies, as well as alot of other flowers that I couldn't readily identify. If there was anything that I didn't like, it was the fact that the last half mile of the trail had degraded back to complete wilderness where we had to climb up hill through knee high grass. Other than that, we had a nice time, the weather was perfect, and the round trip hiking time was exactly 3 hours (including a stop to eat lunch).
All the pictures are posted at the usual location.