Pinnacles National Park

This place is special to me because it was the first time I camped alone in my life.

I also met my guardian angel, Billi, who saw how depleted I was on the trail and asked, “How ya doin?” in such a genuine way I knew I could finally say, “Very tired”. I had about 7 miles left after already hiking ~13 miles in 77º weather. I had run out of food and water and my cell phone which I was using for navigation was running out of battery. I was just finishing up a hysterical phone call with my sister – where I told her through crazed laughs how badly I wanted to cry, but couldn’t because it would further dehydrate me – when I ran into Billi.

Billi and her two friends – who I passed on the trail earlier and thought to myself how crazy it was that they were hiking with a heavy telephoto camera lens while I was dying with just my smaller kit lens and backpack – gave me food and water and walked me to their car which was only two miles away. As we hiked I told them how badly I wanted to see a California Condor, but despite my efforts I had only seen vultures. When we reached the car, Billi’s photographer friend looked up in the sky and asked the second friend to tell her what that bird was while taking off and handing me her binoculars. The other friend confirmed it was a Condor and I hurriedly placed the binoculars in front of my eyes while frantically trying to trace the bird’s movements. I saw it, in all of its glory, in the last few seconds before it went out of view behind some trees.

Pinnacles National Park is a magical place for me, I met so many wonderful people who shared knowledge with me that I then passed to other hikers, I met an awesome couple who taught me how to turn on my camp stove, survived heat exhaustion, and got to lay back every night and stargaze. It may just be my favorite park in California.