{"id":2152,"date":"2018-06-01T21:14:22","date_gmt":"2018-06-01T21:14:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/?p=2152"},"modified":"2018-06-12T21:30:42","modified_gmt":"2018-06-12T21:30:42","slug":"caves-in-pinnacles-national-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/2018\/06\/01\/caves-in-pinnacles-national-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Caves in Pinnacles National Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

We made the drive from Sequoia to Pinnacles. It went faster than I expected primarily due to books on tape. We arrived fairly late in the day, so we decided to park in the national park. It was the first time we had parked in a national park, and I was shocked at the price of the space. At $37 per night, I expected full hookups. Instead, we were paying to not have full electric (30A versus 50A) and no sewage. As such, we decided to maximize our time there.<\/p>\n

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Since Pinnacles National Park is the newest of the national parks (thanks, Obama), it is relatively unknown and small. As soon as we arrived and parked, the kids were able to do their junior rangers, and we took off on a hike.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It was near 5:30pm, and the planned hike was only 3.5 miles.<\/p>\n

\"\"

The scenery was pretty spectacular.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

I sort of expected this to be the most challenging thing of our hike. It turns out I was wrong.<\/p><\/div>\n

Pinnacles is known to be a climbers park. I guess I should\u2019ve been more prepared. We hiked for about 1.5 \u00a0hours before we came to the highlight of the trip: caves created by fallen boulders. The trail went right through the caves. There was no lighting or handrails or steps or even ladders. In fact, the only warning given was a small sign that indicated you should have a flashlight to continue. I figured we had our cell phone flashlights, that would be good enough, right? So we continued.<\/p>\n

\"\"

The last known picture of us just before we descended into the caves. I was still smiling at this point.<\/p><\/div>\n

About ten minutes into defending into black caves and holes (always waiting on an earthquake to kill us all), Scott\u2019s cell phone died. We were in pitch black with only my cell phone light. So we would go five or six steps\/climbs\/drops, and then pass the phone back to the next family member. It was fun and scary and exciting all at the same time. Of course we made it out and hiked the trail back to the car. After the caves, the bucks and rabbits didn\u2019t even make an impression.<\/p>\n

Later that evening, we heard noise coming from the truck. It sounded like someone was breaking into it. We turned on all the lights outside of the RV but the noise continued. It turned out that raccoons had found our dog food supply in the tub in the back of the pickup. They were not scared of humans at all. Scott managed to jump into the truck and lower the automatic tailgate. When they wouldn\u2019t leave, he slowly drove off which scared them enough to get out of the pickup. We took the dog food in and didn\u2019t see them again the rest of the night.<\/p>\n

We knew the rest of the park wouldn\u2019t hold a candle to that hike, so we decided to go ahead and work our ways towards Lassen Volcanic National Park the next morning.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We made the drive from Sequoia to Pinnacles. It went faster than I expected primarily due to books on tape. We arrived fairly late in the day, so we decided to park in the national park. It was the first time we had parked in a national park, and I was shocked at the price…<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2157,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[123,49,135,24],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2152","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"category-micha","9":"category-pinnacles-national-park","10":"category-united-states","11":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/7472164D-05E2-489D-8D26-9AF96C07903D.jpeg?fit=3264%2C2448","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8k10v-yI","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2166,"url":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/2018\/06\/05\/a-long-way-to-lassen-volcanic-national-park\/","url_meta":{"origin":2152,"position":0},"title":"A Long Way to Lassen Volcanic National Park","author":"Micha Hooper","date":"June 5, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"We set out early from Pinnacles since it was about a four hour drive (without stops) to Lassen. Traveling with the RV and the kids and the dog and the cat means that a four hour drive is likely going to be closer to an eight hour drive. After spending\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "BLM Mustangs"","block_context":{"text":"BLM Mustangs","link":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/category\/united-states\/california\/blm-mustangs\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/09D99C2C-DECB-459C-BAC8-DA8B8A764A32.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/09D99C2C-DECB-459C-BAC8-DA8B8A764A32.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/09D99C2C-DECB-459C-BAC8-DA8B8A764A32.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/09D99C2C-DECB-459C-BAC8-DA8B8A764A32.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/09D99C2C-DECB-459C-BAC8-DA8B8A764A32.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1883,"url":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/2018\/04\/14\/seguaro-national-park-and-the-desert-museum\/","url_meta":{"origin":2152,"position":1},"title":"Seguaro National Park and the Desert Museum","author":"Micha Hooper","date":"April 14, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Our first impressions of Tucson were pretty fantastic. It\u2019s a beautiful, clean city that sits in a valley between mountains. Our RV park (LazyDays KOA) was incredibly clean and nice. It was a little pricey, but it had loads of amenities: citrus trees between each RV to two swimming pools\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Arizona"","block_context":{"text":"Arizona","link":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/category\/united-states\/arizona\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/6CD76F89-1926-4B8C-AFCC-879B9F28BFB5.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/6CD76F89-1926-4B8C-AFCC-879B9F28BFB5.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/6CD76F89-1926-4B8C-AFCC-879B9F28BFB5.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/6CD76F89-1926-4B8C-AFCC-879B9F28BFB5.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/6CD76F89-1926-4B8C-AFCC-879B9F28BFB5.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2109,"url":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/2018\/05\/27\/the-amazing-yosemite-national-park\/","url_meta":{"origin":2152,"position":2},"title":"The Amazing Yosemite National Park","author":"Micha Hooper","date":"May 27, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"After leaving Los Angeles, we bypassed King\u2019s Canyon and Sequoia and went directly to Yosemite National Park. We had heard that the peak season would be something to avoid since it is one of the busiest parks, and it was to start in the next seven days. 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Our first night we literally spent one hour outside of Houston in Columbus. But at least we were on our way. Baby steps. The next day\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Carlsbad Caverns National Park"","block_context":{"text":"Carlsbad Caverns National Park","link":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/category\/united-states\/new-mexico\/carlsbad-caverns-national-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/7C1C0F4B-A163-4925-99F2-2897B1E88C85.jpeg?fit=900%2C1200&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/7C1C0F4B-A163-4925-99F2-2897B1E88C85.jpeg?fit=900%2C1200&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/7C1C0F4B-A163-4925-99F2-2897B1E88C85.jpeg?fit=900%2C1200&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/7C1C0F4B-A163-4925-99F2-2897B1E88C85.jpeg?fit=900%2C1200&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1865,"url":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/2018\/04\/12\/guadalupe-mountains-national-park\/","url_meta":{"origin":2152,"position":4},"title":"Guadalupe Mountains National Park","author":"Micha Hooper","date":"April 12, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"With our mirror fixed, it was a short drive of about an hour from Carlsbad Caverns to Guadalupe Mountains National Park. This particular park is small but incredibly beautiful. Guadalupe Mountains is a relatively small park. We went for a small hike, saw the ruins of the 1830s Butterfield Station,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Guadalupe Mountains National Park"","block_context":{"text":"Guadalupe Mountains National Park","link":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/category\/united-states\/texas\/guadalupe-mountains-national-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/C62D0CD4-8B43-4576-9F86-6E399DFE96E9.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/C62D0CD4-8B43-4576-9F86-6E399DFE96E9.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/C62D0CD4-8B43-4576-9F86-6E399DFE96E9.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/C62D0CD4-8B43-4576-9F86-6E399DFE96E9.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/C62D0CD4-8B43-4576-9F86-6E399DFE96E9.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2057,"url":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/2018\/05\/05\/buzzing-through-joshua-tree-national-park\/","url_meta":{"origin":2152,"position":5},"title":"Buzzing through Joshua Tree National Park","author":"Micha Hooper","date":"May 5, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"After leaving the Mojave, we drove the quick hour or so trip to Joshua Tree National Park. 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