Don’t Forget This Easily Missed California National Park

On May 16, 2021
By ExplorerJon
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Introduction

When I told my friends that we were going to Pinnacles National Park, they asked if it was a new National Park. Relatively speaking, yes it is fairly new: only officially becoming a national park in 2013, although it had been a national monument and park before then.

The park is a perfect weekend getaway for those who like hiking a lot as this is primarily a hiking or climbing park. Bonus points if you like bird watching and wildflowers if you come in the Spring. Pinnacles is also home to the California Condor, as it is one of the locations that this bird was re-released back into the wild to bring them back from extinction.

The park itself has two entrances, one each on the West and East. You cannot drive through the entire park to go through both entrances, however you can hike by foot to get to the different sides if you are interested.

Being primarily a hiking and climbing park, Pinnacles is low on amenities, so be sure to pack food and water with you. There is a small park store, but it is mainly a bookstore with some small emergency supplies, and the majority of visitors appeared to be camping out in the camping area near the visitor center or coming in for a day trip. Note that camping is only available in the designated camping area accessible from the East entrance.

For our trip we drove in through the East entrance from the town of Hollister

Otherwise you can drive in through the West entrance from Soledad.

High Peaks to Condor Gulch Loop

On the map we took the Condor Gulch to High Peaks Loop, however we chose to do it in reverse. It is a 5.3 mile round trip with an elevation gain of 1,300 feet and is marked as strenuous on the map. This is most likely due to some steep and narrow rock stairs which we had to traverse on the High Peaks portion of the hike.

We parked at Bear Gulch and walked the 0.2 miles to Moses Spring Parking area, which is a smaller parking lot which also has an open bathroom. From here we found the trailhead for High Peaks Trail.

Trail map showing our route from Bear Gulch to High Peaks Trail

The initial start of the hike had plenty of shade from trees. There are areas to have a picnic with picnic tables and metal barbecue stands. As we hiked through the shade we could hear and saw a good variety of bird life from scrub jays to woodpeckers. See if you can spot the woodpecker in the photo above!

The trail continues upwards through several switchbacks, and eventually breaks through the canopy of trees. I hope you brought plenty of water and are wearing sunscreen! Almost immediately we began to see some of the unique features of Pinnacles as we spotted several spire-like rock formations throughout the valley.

Although the trail is relatively easy at this point, it’s very important to take a break and drink plenty of water. Luckily there are many spots that where we could find shade from the sun in order to rest, enjoy the view, and snap some photos.

As you’re driving into the park you can see the rock formations in the distance, but it’s not until you get up close that you can really appreciate the scale of the rock features.

Keep a sharp eye out for the local flora as well. We saw several different wildflowers along the way, since we went along in the Springtime.

toad-shaped rock — Commander Toad spotted at Pinnacles National Park!

Some rocks had very unique appearances such as this rock which we named toad rock.

oyster mushroom rock — The second from the left looks like an oyster mushroom and the far right rock looks like a face blowing air

Unfortunately due to COVID-19 restrictions we were unable to visit any of the several caves that are a part of this park, so we satisfied ourselves with this stone archway.

The rocks here sure look like pinnacles.

Two miles up the High Peak Trail we reached a lookout point and bathroom, which is currently closed due to COVID19, but serves as a good landmark to spot yourself on the trail. From here you have two choices, take the Juniper Canyon Trail or continue on High Peaks Trail which is what we chose to do.

map of our route from Bear Gulch to Scout Peak — Trail map showing our route from High Peaks Trail to Scout Peak

We reached the “steep” and “narrow” portion of the high peaks trail. It actually wasn’t all that strenuous compared to the trail we had just completed, but it was much slower going as we carefully climbed up and down several sets of narrow stone stairs. We were really thankful the how well-made these stairs were for climbing.

turkey vulture — Sadly instead of the rare California Condor, we were only able to spot several Turkey Vultures circling overhead near the peaks.

There really isn’t just one set of pinnacles to look out for, rather there are several that dot the landscape, and some that you are able to stand right next to along the trail.

Map of our route through high peaks trail

In the end we are glad we took a reversed version of the Condor Gulch to High Peaks Trail loop. This direction meant that we were mostly climbing up stairs instead of down the stairs, which I think was a lot easier to complete.

The highlight of this trail is definitely along the top of the high peak trail so it is worth it to get all the way to the top to view the pinnacles and the surrounding park. Should you want to expand on your hike and have the energy, many of the trails are interconnected so you could navigate through many of the trails and parts of the park in a single trip to witness the variety of views and landscape throughout.

We hope this inspires you to check out a lesser known National Park to see the unique rock formations created along the San Andreas fault. Maybe you will be more fortunate than us and catch a glimpse of the large California Condors!