Wednesday September 8 - We decided to cancel 2 camping nights at Pinnacles and spend our last two nights before getting to the vineyard at Morro Strand State Beach. So we got up at 5:30 to hit the trail before the heat. We hiked up the High Peaks Trail, which was steep and narrow, with a few areas with cut out steps in the rock with a metal handrail to keep you from falling off the cliff. We decided it was a top 10 hike. We got a shaded spot pretty high up and stopped for a drink and right in front of us, sitting in a tree, was condor #21. Pinnacles has been involved in reintroducing condors into the wild and usually have about 27 condors at any one time, at the park. They are all tagged so that the rangers can track them and see how they are doing. We looked up #21 on condorspotter.com and found he was born at a zoo in Oregon 3 years ago, his name is Whiskey Papa. We sat there for 30 minutes hoping he would decide to fly away, but he didn't. So glad we got to see a condor up close before leaving Pinnacles, and we will definitely come back some time.
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