Maya’s attempt to kill me today almost proved successful. First, she set a grueling 3.7mph (as measured by my very accurate GPS watch) hiking pace as we covered a total of ten miles in Pinnacles National Park this morning. For reference, I generally shoot for 2mph over such terrain.  I am convinced she is part Billy goat. Second, she picked up a huge boulder (pictured above) and tried to throw it at me.

Our first hike was on the Old Pinnacles Trail to the Balconies Cliffs and then the Balconies Cave for just under 7 miles. Traversing the cave required some scrambling and tight maneuvering (see entrance below).

We then made a short drive to Bear Gulch where we added 3 more miles on the Bear Gulch Cave and Rim trails which took us to and from the delightful Bear Creek Reservoir where Maya was unable to convince the local squirrels to attack me.

With no restaurants in the park we decided to lunch in Monterey.  Maya Yelped us a great little breakfast spot where we each had 2 eggs, hash browns and toast for a grand total of $3.25 including tax.  Quite the contrast to our Palo Alto breakfast yesterday which came to $30 with tip. Realizing that Maya had never been to the Pacific Ocean we decided to tour the famous 17 Mile Drive and stopped frequently to enjoy the views, the water, and the Pebbles Beach golf course lodge and 18th hole.

Our final stop for the day before driving to Santa Cruz for the evening was the Basilica of San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo Mission (Carmel Mission) founded by Fr. Junipero Serra in 1770, making it the second of the 21 California missions.