Monday we had the day completely off so we decided to do something exciting. We checked on the internet for cool places we'd never been to and come up with Pinnacles National Monument. It's about a 3 hour drive from our house and looked like it would have lot's of hiking, climbing and pretty senery. The drive itself was beautiful enough to make the whole trip worth it.
We made it to Pinnacles and started hiking right away. Jonah heard there were caves so we took a 5 mile trail that was going to end at a cave.
Starting our hike and soaking up the outdoors!
Stopped along side the road to take some pictures.
We made it to Pinnacles and started hiking right away. Jonah heard there were caves so we took a 5 mile trail that was going to end at a cave.
Starting our hike and soaking up the outdoors!
There were so many brightly colored rocks all over the ground.
I had a blast with so many interesting things to take pictures of...
Our trail crossed over this stream many times. Sometimes it was easy (when there was a bridge) but most of the time we had to jump from rock to rock and we both ended up a little wet.
Stopping for lunch
After the sign we found these stairs, but once we climbed them we had a hard time figuring out where to go.
There was such a variety of landscape that we were always discovering different types of rocks, trees, and flowers.
We found this sign that reads: "Caution falling rock. flashlights required. low ceilings. dangerous when wet." Yikes! But don't worry we brought head lamps.
After the sign we found these stairs, but once we climbed them we had a hard time figuring out where to go.
Finally after crossing the stream a couple more times and pushing our way through thick brush this is what we saw....
Were so confused because we knew we had come the right way to get the cave but there was no cave in sight or any way to get there. So we decided to climb up the rocks! I felt a bit like Bear Grylls! Our effort paided off because we finally found the entrance to the cave.
Ready to go in.
Inside the cave!
It was pretty small and didn't seem very "cavy" to me but there was a waterfall at the end so that was cool, but anticlimatic compared to what we did to get there.
Jonah and the waterfall
We climbed back down and headed back on the trail.
We made it back to the car and decided to just head back home because we were feeling tired and didn't want to get home late because we had to work the next day. Once we got reception on our phones we found out our good friends Sam and Sierra had their baby Ava La Ree!! We had heard the day before that Sierra's water had broken so we were thinking about them all day so it was a perfect ending to a great day to hear that everything had gone well.
