Pinnacles National Park is a climbers playground! My pictures DO NOT do this place justice and I understand why this was made a National Park in 2013. I went here well before sunrise to go hiking, climbing, and caving. I didn’t really know what to expect but the thing that really surprised me is that I was the only person here. I had the entire National Park to myself! The only other people I saw was a climbing couple who showed up just as I was leaving.

We were staying in an RV park just outside of Pinnacles in the San Benito RV Resort. We got a great spot with a beautiful view of the rolling central California hills. It’s surrounded by wineries and other agriculture.

Pinnacles has a massive bat population in the many caves. Just before sunrise, you could see them all over the place. You have to bring a flashlight or headlamp because the caves are pitch black. One of the things I was really impressed with is the amount of marked rock climbing routes.
Once I was done climbing around I parked myself on a peak and relaxed while the sun came up.  They have some really nice loop trails you can take to climbing spots, or if you are just there to hike you can do that too.

There is so much wildlife in this area.  

We were here for 3 days and really got to enjoy the area. There was a lot left to set up in the RV so much of the non-exploring time was spent working and continuing to make the RV into our home, (meaning Danielle put me to work haha.)


Danielle bought some plastic baby gates on Amazon that work perfectly to create a mobile yard for Bailey to play in. One evening just before sunset we were both working at the table and Bailey was next to me. She started growling quietly, it’s rare for her to make any noises so I looked up and saw a skunk RIGHT OUTSIDE the door, and the door was open along with all the windows! We had left a small section of the gate open and the skunk got in but it couldn’t get out! I whispered to Danielle to quietly take Bailey in the bathroom and wait until I could figure out a solution on how to gently guide it out of our man-made yard. So I did what anyone would do until I figured out a good solution…I climbed into the top area of the RV, opened the screen of the window and video taped the skunk running around. I figured if we were going to get sprayed I wanted to at least catch it on video. If you are curious how the skunk found it’s way out click here.