Park 46: Pinnacles National Park (and Lands End Lookout at Golden Gate NRA)

5/28/14. We started our morning at Lands End Lookout which is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. We became fascinated with the ruins and history of the later 19th century Sutro Bath House.
The pictures of the original structure made it seem like it was right out of a Victorian novel.

We also walked down to the Cliff House, trying to imagine the huge Victorian structure that once sat on the cliff in all its elegance.







Here's a picture of the Cliff House from 1902:

 The beach was also fascinating. The waves were beautiful, coming in row after row, but there were signs all over the entrances saying that people who swam or waded in the water have drowned here. Needless to say, there was no one in the water as far as we could see down the coast. We began to understand why they wanted the huge bathhouse to swim in.


We drove down the coast for a ways, stopped at Fort Funston for the amazing views of the water and coast, then headed into the mountains on our trek to Pinnacles National Park. We were curious to see this newest National Park although we knew that the "bat caves" that are a focus of the park would not be open because the bats can't be disturbed during the summer.





We arrived after a long journey into the barrenness of the desert and mountains. This is a very remote park! We thought there would be very few people visiting here because of the long, hot, barren drive, but the ranger told us that they were very crowded this weekend and all the camping spots were reserved at one point.

We drove up a little ways to the  Gulch and did one of the shorter trails. It was peaceful and quiet and the wind in the trees was lovely. We didn't think that this park was all that special compared to other national parks, however. Most of the views and experience were similar to areas outside the park. We assume that we needed more time here and needed to experience more of the park to discover what made it worthy of national park status.

 
We left the park and headed southeast to the I5 in the Central Valley. Oh my goodness, it is hard to describe the barrenness and desolation of this drive! It was a couple of hours of dry, barren land with an occasional ranch. It looked the setting from western movies like Rango! We were so happy to finally make it back over the mountains into the Central Valley and hit the Interstate! I don't think we would hurry back to this park given how hard it was to get to. But we are looking forward to exploring more of the California park units this summer!

Park 45: Muir Woods National Monument

5/26/14. After spending the morning at the Mary Blair exhibit at the Disney Family Museum, we drove over the Golden Gate Bridge and up the hills to the Muir Woods National Historic Monument. The weather was perfect and the park was quite crowded. It was great to see so many people who wanted to experience the amazing beauty and feeling of the national parks.

We really enjoyed learning more about the redwoods and comparing them to our experiences with the Sequoias in November. There was a similar feeling of quiet stillness and awe. We loved all of the redwood sorrel growing in the underbrush. They looked like huge clover. It was also cool to see all the spring growth on the ends of the tree fronds.

We again realized how much we love trees - it must be from growing up with so many trees. Here are more photos of the woods from our terrific afternoon:

 

Parks 43 & 44: Presidio of San Francisco/Golden Gate Recreation Area and Fort Point National Historic Site

5/25/14. We left from Southern California this morning and hit the I5 at 7am to head north to San Francisco. We were amazed again at the vast expanse of agricultural fields once you get over the Santa Monica Mountains.

This time, evidence of the drought was everywhere. It truly looked like one big desert with patches of bright green where the fields are irrigated. Many fields of nut trees were completely dead.

















We were thrilled to see the coast and the green lushness of San Francisco. After we got to the city, we headed right for the Presidio since it was almost 3 pm. We stopped first at the Visitor's Center and decided to change our plans slightly and visit the other park sites before they closed today.

As always, the ranger was very helpful and we did a walking tour of the Presidio's main military post. It was a beautiful clear, cool day and there was a Memorial Day celebration on the main parade ground with music and food tents. We had some fantastic cheesy grits and strawberry lemonade on our walk. 

The buildings reminded us a great deal of Fort Hancock at Sandy Hook. They had similar barracks and officer's quarters, although many of the buildings had interesting Spanish architecture incorporated into the eastern style.

Next we drove down to the parking are by the bay and walked along the path down to the water. The views of the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco Bay were unparalleled. It was truly a perfect weather day.

 We stopped at the Warming Hut and got a passport stamp, then walked along the bay to Fort Point. This fort is very well reconstructed and looks very much like the other forts we've visited such as Fort Clinton in NY.  The gift shop had just closed when we arrived so Catherine convinced one of the young rangers to let her in to get our passport stamps.

We walked back up the hill to our car, enjoying the amazing view of the bay. It was a terrific day and we are excited to explore more of the San Francisco area tomorrow!