Leanne and I have seen 3 of the 63 U.S. National Parks together: Yosemite, Yellowstone, and the Grand Tetons. On our mission to see them all, we decided to look first in our own backyard. Pinnacles National Park is one of the newest and is only 2.5 hrs away by car. We had a 5 day weekend and it’s also Leanne’s 32nd birthday weekend so we had to go!

On the way we ate delicious sushi at an authentic Japanese sushi bar

We arrived Tuesday late at night. It was too late to set up our campsite tent but we had Michonne, my Subaru SUV, so that was all the tent we needed.

Thank goodness we stayed in the car. It got down to about 34 degrees and rained most of the night!

The next morning we made campfire coffee and then hit the trails.

The hike we decided on was not for the feint of heart. We chose to do the “Best Of” trail that was 12.2 miles with elevation gain of 3,084 ft. We did the whole trail in one day! Our legs were basically noodles when we were done. We saw amazing sights though, including the Pinnacle Rocks, High Peaks, and even a cave.