In truth, the title of this blog should really be Pinnacles National Park – the park we almost didn’t make. For those of you keeping up, you know that Ava had quite a big wreck while skiing in Big Sky. I am happy to report that she is doing great (more on that in other blogs) but that she did have to stick around Bozeman for a while. Carolyn stuck with her while Hazel and I returned to the RV and attempted to get things going again. So this is the one park that Carolyn and Ava are going to miss.
Hazel and I very nearly missed it as well. Unfortunately when we got back to our mobile-home, it was anything but mobile. While we were away it turns out that Reno experienced some of the coldest weather they had seen in some time. Almost two full weeks of below freezing temps with wind chills below zero. The RV did not fare very well. Hazel and I walked into a mess. We had no power, no water and no idea how to fix it. Although the engine would start, we could not bring in the slides or close up the RV, which means we couldn’t drive anywhere. We were stuck.
For the next two days we did nothing but troubleshoot, talk to service techs, research on the internet and trace wires. I say “we” because Hazel was a huge help in all this. While I crawled around under the RV, Hazel flipped switches, handed me tools and helped make sure I didn’t do anything stupid like electrocute myself! In order to fully appreciate this, you have to understand that the wiring in an RV is not like anything else. Not only is there all the wiring for a full size truck, but there is both AC and DC wiring for the home portion. Then there is wiring for the generator, wiring for the house batteries (four massive deep cycle batteries that weigh 75 lbs each), wiring for the solar panels and wiring to connect the home to the truck. In all, one tech told me that in our 38 foot RV there is probably around 2 miles of wires. We finally tracked the issue to a DC solenoid – don’t ask me what that is, I don’t know. I just know it was a problem. I did some reading and figured out how to reroute some wires, bypassing the solenoid and essentially “hotwiring” the house. And viola – we got electricity back to the RV. We pulled in the slides and we headed off to California.
Since the shop we were headed to could not take us for a couple days, Hazel and I decided we should push on to Pinnacles. I am incredibly glad we did!
Both Hazel and I will tell you that our initial impression of Pinnacles was not all that great. The entry sign was pretty lame – just a standard brown steel sign (and we now expect a lot more from the National Parks!). We went on to the visitor center. Cool building, but it was just a trinket shop. Nothing about the park, no film or any of the normal displays that explain the history, the flora and fauna and the importance. Then we got to interact with the most surly Ranger we have encountered yet. She seemed a bit put out that I would ask for hiking recommendations and was not happy at all that I left my park pass on display in the car, never-mind that the signs in the parking lot asked me to do exactly that.
But we pressed on and like many of the parks, once you go a couple miles past the normal paths, they really shine. Just up the road we found the really cool national park sign. And just beyond that we found the nature center with all the park info, cool displays and incredibly helpful rangers. We went for our hike and saw some of the amazing features of this beautiful and unique landscape. Over the course of the next three miles we hiked up eroded volcanic mountains, walked past dozens of rock climbers and crawled through talus caves where boulders weighing hundreds of tons were wedged into crevice’s and streams flowed through the cracks creating amazing “underground” streams and waterfalls.
Hazel and I ended up spending about half a day in the park. Although this is hardly enough time to really see the park in detail, we definitely had a great time and got to see a lot. The only thing we were hoping for but didn’t see was one of the California Condors that have been re-released into the area. And the only thing we really missed was having Carolyn and Ava with us. Which sounds like a great excuse for a return trip sometime in the future!