Pinnacles NP

If there’s one thing I’m gonna do in this life, its find a way to play outside on a work trip. My most recent trip to Gilroy, California was no exception to this. Gilroy is a small suburban town about an hour south of San Jose, and it just so happens to be about 45 minutes from Pinnacles National Park.

My alarm went off at 3:30am on Friday, May 2nd. I needed to be at work by about 9am, had a 45 min drive each way and planned an 8 mile run with about 2,000 vertical feet. The goal was to catch the sunrise in the high peaks section of Pinnacles. I scarfed down a (horrible) microwave breakfast bowl I had picked up from a local grocery store the night before and hit the road.

Once out of the town, this area of CA is mainly farmland and sparsely populated. I was expecting some pretty good stargazing on the drive there and during the beginning of my run. Much to my dismay, there was heavy fog and overcast. I spent the whole drive worrying I had gotten up this early just to run through fog for a couple hours and not even get to see any scenery.

The run started in deep fog – I could not see more than about 3 feet in front of me. To make it worse, Pinnacles is notorious for its wildlife – bobcats, feral pigs, condors – are all commonly seen throughout the park. I’m not usually scared running through the woods in the dark by myself; I have pretty much desensitized myself to it by this point. But this was spooky. I could hear animals all around me, the pigs and condors screeching, and bats constantly dive bombing me on the trail. There was a lot of stopping to duck and yelling some colorful language.

As I began the climb, the fog did not relent. I was really bummed by this point, it was starting to get lighter out but I couldn’t see a thing. Finally, as I broke treeline, the clouds started to thin. I was beginning to think there might be a chance for a cloud inversion – my absolute favorite phenomena to experience outdoors. Sure enough, about a half mile further, a few hundred feet below the highest point on the trail, I was completely above the clouds looking at a bright orange and pink sky. I found a small boulder to climb, took a seat on top of and was able to watch the entire sunrise; perfect timing. I took hundreds of pictures as usual (my poor phone storage!), sprinted down, and made it into work by 9:15am. Just another day taking work-life balance to the extreme! National Park #9 of 63.