The whole route south was along the San Andreas Fault line. Half expected to feel a shaking while we were there but all was quiet.
At one of our touring spots we were interested where the creek had overflowed and torn a lot of material out of its banks. Reading about this 40-year flood we found that the park service had used this area as a solid waste dump. (Guess we would have thought that next to a stream bed would be a bad place for garbage.) Now they are having to do a remedial cleanup. Yup!
The Pinnacles is one of 6 places where California condors are being released in the wild after being raised in zoos to help this species from becoming extinct. If things go as planned, adult female condors lay an egg. Then scientists take the egg away and the female will lay another one. The scientists give the egg either to a non-laying female or take it to a zoo to be hatched and then raised by condor puppets. (really) We didn't see any condors because at this time of the year the scientists trap the condors for the season and keep them in a cage. Quite sure we hadn't heard of that before! Guess they have good reason for this as condors are close to extinction because they feed on carcasses which, to their bad luck, often are the animal remains left by a hunter and have lead from ammunition. It's the lead that has killed them.
A new campground has been added to the park this year and that is where we spent the night. Laurie didn't get in trouble for squishing a park bee. Guess the ranger felt the sting was enough! We had 16 deer, 12 wild turkeys, and at least 500 quail in our campsite! Didn't see any of the wild pigs that are in the area but noticed a lot of damage in the campground from their nosing around.
