San Benito County might be the prettiest county nobody ever goes to.

Somehow, San Benito County is one of those rare coastal counties you can almost entirely avoid on any drive between San Francisco and Los Angeles.  Few people live there, and other than a brief moment on US-101, you really have to go out of your way to explore it.

San Benito County has two claims to fame.  First, it’s home to Pinnacles National Park.  Second, it’s home to Hollister, California, made famous by the clothing brand that has absolutely nothing to do with Hollister, California.

At one point, Pinnacles used to be a National Monument.  It was upgraded to a National Park as a tourism ploy to get more people to visit Hollister and the interior Central Coast.  There is literally no other reason.  I mean, it’s pretty enough.  But should National Parks just be “pretty enough”?  Finally, the Central Coast gets to say, “Hey, we have a national park now.”  And only the crickets reply.

I’d show you pictures of Pinnacles, but I didn’t take any, so here’s another tree and green hills:

Now, truth be told, these hills, like most of the state’s grassland, are only green for about three to four months out of the year, between December and March.  It is during this time that the trees lose their leaves.  So, the sad irony of the California landscape is: you will never have green hills and green trees at the same time.  You will either have green hills and barren trees (winter), or you will have green trees and brown hills (the rest of the year).  So let’s celebrate these green, rocky San Benito hills with another picture.  This more resembles the type of landscape in Pinnacles anyway.

And another tree for good measure.  Can’t get enough trees.

It’s actually the same tree from above.  Shhhh!  Don’t tell anybody!