Pinnacles National Park

Pongo Returns to Pinnacles
August 10, 2013

Soundtrack:

• The Magnetic Fields -- 69 Love Songs

Pongo has been wound up the last couple of days.  He's a high strung dog by nature, but he's been especially tight for some reason.  He was in need of an adventure and I hadn't had time to plan something different, so I took him down to Pinnacles again.  He does seem to love that place.

Black-tailed Deer -- Pinnacles National Park, CA

The campground was crowded.  I guess I've never been there before at this time of year.  We're not talking Yellowstone or Yosemite crowds, mind you, but I didn't see too many empty camp sites on our stroll. One or two, perhaps.  Just a couple of months ago we made the same pass through the camground and most spots were empty.

Turkey Vulture -- Pinnacles National Park, CA

I was reminded of what camping was like when I was a kid.  We often went to places around Oregon.  We'd often take our bikes.  For some reason, there's something cool about riding a bike around a campground.  There were a number of little kids doing just that at Pinnacles.  The swimming pool was packed there, too.  It was a beautiful day, hot but not overbearingly so, just about perfect for a swim day.  The one thing Pinnacles is lacking is a large natural body of water.

Turkey Vultures -- Pinnacles National Park, CA

I don't know what it is about this place that attracts all the vultures.  They're common sights just about everywhere in California, but Pinnacles seems to draw more than its fair share of the carreon.  They're not the most graceful things.  They soar on broad wings, but they wobble as they fly.  I saw a golden eagle a couple of weeks ago, and they're similar in size and color to vultures.  I knew almost immediately I wasn't looking at a vulture, though, 'cause eagles don't wobble.  The eagle was fast, too.  He seemed to have a destination in mind.  Vultures never seem to have somewhere they need to be.  Even when they're circling, more often than not they don't seem to be all that interested in landing.  Malingerers and malcontents.

Black-tailed Deer -- Pinnacles National Park, CA

As usual, we saw a lot of deer and other little critters.  Pongo spent a lot of his energy searching through the bushes along the sides of the roads for little beasts.  Last time we were in the campground it seemed like every bush he poked his nose into had a couple of brush rabbits or squirrels underneath.  Not so today.  The crowd has driven them into deeper hiding, I guess.  Pongo found a few things scare out of the shrubbery, but he had to work a lot harder at it this time.  Outside of the campground, though, there was a lot of activity.

California Quail -- Pinnacles National Park, CA