Jessie: Day 2 of our vacation started at 7 o'clock with a hearty breakfast. Though, being the only park we would visit that day, Pinnacles NP was not an easy walk in the park. It wasn't even a hard walk in the park, it was in its own category all together. Alli and I dreaded the hour long car ride into the park, knowing beforehand that we were to hike 6 miles, one four-mile hike and one two-mile hike.
The mileage however did not deter Dad, who claimed that 6 miles would be easy and kept exclaiming how the host of the Motion show hiked the same trails we were about to and how well-marked they were. But at a stop at the visitor center we all realized how challenging the hike was going to be as the Ranger told us that the elevation gain in the first 1.6 miles was 1200 feet. Perfect.
We arrived at the trailhead and after getting ourselves packed and ready we prepared to start the more strenuous 4-mile High Peaks hike. The only problem: we didn't know which trail was which. We searched the trail map only to realize that it was below par and didn't tell us anything. After asking someone which trail was the High Peaks trail we began our hike up the mountain. Here we go.
Just kidding. Turns out we were on the wrong trail, which we figured out after hiking a tenth of a mile. Muttering angrily about how the guy from Motion said the trails were excellently marked and sarcastically agreed with that statement we started our actual hike. I preferred the first trail. The high peaks trail was, well challenging to say the least. The views up the trail were beautiful throughout the hike, the distant mountains providing the perfect backdrop for the reddish rock formations soaring out from the green brush. The hike up was the trickiest part and everyone was happy to put it behind us. The loop around the top of the mountain was the best part for me. In my opinion, it was like walking on the set of The Lord of the Rings. We hiked up steps that looked like the exact ones Frodo and Sam climbed. The opening of a tunnel we went through looked like the opening to the cave Aragorn went through. It felt like we were hiking the trail to Mordor.
What took us an hour and a half to 2 hours to hike up the mountain took us about 30-45 minutes to climb down. I think it was partly because we were going downhill, and partly because everyone was excited to sit in the AC of our car (nicknamed Macklemore). After about ten minutes of AC we started our second hike, and Alli and I were less than thrilled to say the least. That last hike almost killed us.
This hike was only two miles however and took us through dark caverns and narrow spaces between boulders that reminded us of the movie 127 Hours. After a long, hot hike up a mountain, the cooler, less challenging hike through the caverns felt nice. Throughout this hike we again realized that the signs were unclear, and at times, completely missing.
Nevertheless we made it through our first hiking day of our vacation, and ended it with a Frosty from Wendy's.
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