Pinnacles National Park, California

Pinnacles National Park is located about two hours southeast of San Francisco. The park is slightly odd in that there is no road through the middle of it, so you have to chose to enter on the east or west side. If you want to see the other side of the park, you either hike to it or drive an hour around to the other side.

We only had a day in this park so we opted to go on the east side because it was closer to our main route. We had a delightful 12-mile loop planned and we were excited to hike it. We arrived around 8:30am to find that all the parking lots close to the main trail head were already full. This is normally not a big deal, as the park service runs a shuttle service from the remote parking to the trail head. However, despite that it was one of the busiest time of the year, they weren't running it that day.

Bummer.

The park ranger told us "it's only a 3-mile hike to the trail head!" "3 miles round trip or each way?" "Each Way."

So off we went. Because we were forced to add an extra six miles to our hike that we hadn't anticipated, we opted to shorten the hike we had originally planned.

After an hour of unplanned hiking, we arrived at the Bear Gulch Nature Center, the start to all of the main trails. We took the Bear Gulch Cave trail up the reservoir, went up the rim trail, and then up the High Peaks trail to the intersection with the Juniper Trail. From there we went back down the mountain to make sure we had enough time before dark. The Cave trail was super fun and one of my favorite hikes to date. A flashlight or headlamp is required and you weave your way through pitch darkness to the top of the trail.  

A word of advice.. this is probably not the best trail for someone who doesn't like the dark or closed in spaces. I will say that we saw people of all ages, from kids that were five or six to some older hikers in their sixties. You must bring a flashlight along for this trail, but I suggest a headlamp so you can have both hands free. Be advised that at some points of the year, there is running water in the caves.

 Finally coming back out into sunlight near the top.

The cave trail puts you out at the reservoir, a lovely little spot where we enjoyed lunch. Then we were off to start the switchbacks into the high peaks area. 

Pinnacles National Park was originally protected because of the unique geology found in the park. These unique rocks are the leftovers of volcanic activity millions of years ago. The caves we hiked through are made of talus rock, which formed when large canyons filled with boulders that fell from cliffs above the cave area. 

The hike peaks region is mostly made of breccia rock, which is molten rock leftover from the volcano days. It is a lovely reddish to gray color and forms many interesting rocky shapes.

  

 At the top of the trail! To our right you can see the west side parking lot.

  

  

  

  

  

Pinnacles is a beautiful park, but most of the beauty is only accessibly by hiking. It has very little in the way of scenic drives and is pretty tiny overall. In all honesty, were disappointed the NPS wasn't running the bus service they were supposed to and that we missed out on some of our planned hiking because of it. Regardless, we had fun doing the caves trail and the views in the high peaks were beautiful. I guess it means we'll just have to revisit this park one day!