Pinnacles National Park, California - August 29th to September 2nd, 2024

Pinnacles National Park is not a highly visited park, but we found it quite enjoyable. It is not as spectacular as some of the other national parks in California, such as Sequoia, Yosemite, or Joshua Tree, but we always find national parks to be special places. There is always something different about national parks that set them apart from the state parks.

Thursday was a travel day from Big Sur to Pinnacles National Park. Normally we would have dumped before we left the campground, especially since we hadn’t dumped in five days. The campground before Fernwood Campground in Big Sur, the Portola Redwoods State Park campground, did not have a dump station. Fernwood has a dump station, but it costs $20. We would have gladly paid that, but the dump station was inside a fenced off area and our sewer hose was not long enough to reach the sewer hole inside the fence. We could have still dumped our cassette, since we could have carried that inside the fence, but $20 seemed a little much to dump a five gallon cassette.

We made only two stops during the drive. First stop was in Carmel by the Sea for gas. The second stop was in Hollister for groceries. Along the way, we missed a turn and ended up driving through the middle of Castroville, the artichoke center of the world. So that is what those fern-like looking plants are in the farm fields that we saw along the coast!

In Hollister, Google Maps directed us by the Hollister High School. At first, we thought it might be a college campus, as there were several blocks of buildings and the street through campus was gated off. We’re not used to seeing high schools with so many separate buildings and outdoor space. Our daughter has told us before that many California high schools are like that, as she has been to quite a few of them over the years through her involvement in drum corps and winter guard.

We arrived at Pinnacles around 12:30 pm. The air temperature was quite a shock to our systems. It was 60 degrees when we left Fernwood Campground and it was 92 degrees when we arrived in Pinnacles. We had not experienced 90 degree temperatures since we left Joshua Tree National Park in mid May (Joshua Tree National Park, California - May 15th to 19th, 2024). While we’ve been on the coast for the past month and a half, the temperatures have been in the 50’s and 60’s. One of the days we were in Portola Redwoods State Park, it reached 80 degrees and it felt hot. So 90’s will take some time for our bodies to adjust to. Luckily, the campground has a swimming pool. Have you ever heard of a national park campground with a pool before?

After eating our lunch, we dumped and filled our tanks, then set up camp. There are electric sites in the Pinnacles campground, but we reserved a non-hookup site. At first, given the heat, it seemed like the wrong choice, since we don’t normally run the air conditioner without being plugged in. However, the electric sites were more exposed, while our tent site was nestled among the trees, providing some good shade. We opened up all the windows and turned on all of our fans, then sat outside in the shade. With the breeze and shade, we were comfortable. Our bodies will adjust faster by not spending the heat of the day inside air conditioning.

Before dinner, we walked over to the visitor center. There was no park movie, but the park staff were very helpful with information about the hiking trails and trailhead parking.

As we were sitting at our camp site, we were entertained by all of the wildlife that came by. There were wild turkeys, quail, squirrels, woodpeckers and bluebirds. We haven’t seen this much wildlife activity in a campground since Jumbo Rocks Campground in Joshua Tree National Park. There were hundreds of quail. At first, we thought they were Gambel’s quail, but we’ve learned that they are California quail. They look pretty similar to one another. Their calls seem to be similar as well. We heard a lot of quail during our stay at the Lost Dutchman State Park in Arizona the previous year (Lost Dutchman State Park, Arizona - September 17th to 20th, 2023), so it is a very familiar sound.

The temperatures cooled off in the evening, so we went for a walk after dinner. We saw there was a historic ranch down the dirt road past the visitor center. We thought there was only one ranch, but later learned there are two. We came to the first set of buildings, the first ranch, but we weren’t sure it was the historic ranch or not. There were no interpretative signs anywhere. So we continued walking the road.

After passing a couple of horses in a pasture, we came up to an old barn. Was that the ranch? The road continued, but we didn’t go much further. We had already walked over a mile and the sun was setting, so we turned around. We found out later that the first set of buildings was the ranch we were looking for, but there is also a second historic ranch further down the road. We should have brought a map with us.

It was an enjoyable walk, even though we didn’t reach the second ranch. There was a lot of wildlife. Turkey vultures were roosting in trees for the night. We came across about half a dozen deer, bucks, does and fawns. At the ranch house, a skunk was trying to find a way to get under the house. On the way back, we had a much closer encounter with a skunk. By the time Ann saw it, the skunk was just a foot off the side of the road, less than ten feet in front of us. She warned Keith to stop, as he was on the closer side of the road to the skunk. The skunk had its back to us as we were thinking to ourselves “please don’t spray us, please don’t spray us!”.

Before we decided what our next move was, the skunk scurried off into the bushes. Whew! Now what are you supposed to do to remove skunk odor, bathe in tomato juice? A little research turned up a solution of hydrogen peroxide, baking soda and liquid dish soap, all things we have with us. Good to know. Not that we want to test it out. We like new experiences, but being sprayed by a skunk is not one we care to have.

The low for the night was expected to dip down into the 50’s. No air conditioning was necessary for a good night’s sleep. We could leave the windows open and listen to the sound of the crickets.

Friday we went for an easy hike, so we could let our bodies get used to the heat. Right from the campground, we took the Bench Trail all the way to the Old Pinnacles Trailhead. We were on trail around 9:15 am in order to finish our hike before the heat of the day.

The Bench Trail pretty much follows alongside the road most of the way. However, the road is not in view for the majority of the time and there isn’t much road traffic, so it didn’t feel like you were following a road. The trail is mainly in the shade. Contrary to its name, there are no benches along the trail, unless you count the picnic tables at the Pinnacles View Day Use Area which the trail passes through.

When we reached the Old Pinnacles Trailhead, we sat down on some boulders in the parking lot to eat our snack. By the time we returned to Red Tail (our Winnebago EKKO), we had covered 6.7 miles with only 213 feet of elevation gain which took us two hours and 45 minutes to complete. We were back just in time for lunch.

After hanging out at our campsite for a while, we walked over to the camp store and bought a couple of cold cans of Coke for a treat. When we returned, a group of wild turkeys were hanging out in the shade in front of Red Tail, trying to get some relief from the heat.

At one point, Keith went inside Red Tail to retrieve something and turned around to see a raccoon trying to peer inside our rig, with its paws on the entry steps. Keith shooed it away, only to find two more raccoons under Red Tail. As Keith flushed them out by stomping, yelling, and waving a stick, they all ran past Ann who was sitting on the other side of Red Tail. They startled her, but she instinctively picked up her camera to snap a shot.

For dinner, we tried sitting outside at the picnic table to eat, but the bees found us pretty quickly, so we retreated inside. The temps had cooled down enough that it was comfortable inside Red Tail with all the fans turned on. As we finished eating, we spotted the raccoons again, just outside our rig. We had not left any food outside, but they had gotten into the grease tray of our Blackstone griddle. Keith rushed out the door to scare them away again.

Saturday was the hottest day of our stay in Pinnacles. We went on a more interesting and harder hike, the Old Pinnacles Trail to Balconies. We knew there was limited parking at the trailhead and we wanted to beat the heat, so we got up at 6:30 am and were at the trailhead by 7 am.

There were only about three cars there when we arrived. The four parking spots parallel to the end loop were still open. Those were the ones we were hoping to get because the other parking spots were rather small to fit Red Tail into.

We ate our breakfast and drank our coffee at the trailhead. Or, more accurately, Ann ate her breakfast and Keith drank his coffee, which is our normal morning routine. We were on the trail by 8:20 am. By that time, the parking lot was not quite full yet, but it was getting close to being full.

Our wildlife encounters continued. There were the normal quail and deer along the trail. Quite a few turkey vultures were circling overhead. There are supposed to be California Condors in the park as well. They look very similar to turkey vultures so we were looking at the vultures, making sure they weren’t condors. Turkey vultures have a white band along the tips of their feathers, on the trailing end of their wings. According to the interpretative sign back at the campground, condors are larger, with a white triangle on their wings closer to the leading edge of their wings, near their shoulders.

As we were hiking along, Keith came to an abrupt stop. A tarantula was walking across the trail right in front of us. We watched it as it reached the other side of the trail. Then it seemed to scrunch down, as if to protect itself. The spider probably noticed that it was being watched. That’s the first tarantula we’ve ever seen in the wild.

The trail leads up to some jagged, rocky cliffs. The cliffs look out of place, as the surrounding area has smoothly sculpted rounded hill tops. The area is a piece of a tectonic plate that broke off and moved north with the Pacific Plate along the San Andreas Fault. So the Pinnacles area is two-thirds of an ancient volcanic field, with the other third of it sitting 195 miles away to the southeast.

The Old Pinnacles Trail leads to the Balconies Cave Trail. For about a third of a mile, you scramble through a cave of large boulders. Be sure to bring a headlamp or flashlight. We strapped our trekking poles to our packs before entering the cave so we would have better use of our hands for scrambling. Some of the boulders in the cave are wedged in. Sometimes you squeeze around them and sometimes you pass under them. Our advice is to make your pack as small as possible. There are some tight and narrow passageways along with some low clearances. Keith managed to make it through without getting on his knees. Ann crawled under a couple of large boulders. We wish we would have moved our water bottles to the inside of our packs. Also, Ann’s poles were sticking up above her pack and liked to get caught on the rocks while trying to go under some low clearances. But it was a fun scramble. Nothing was very difficult.

After emerging out the other side of the cave, the trail splits. One fork goes to the Chaparral Parking Area on the west side of the park. The other fork is the Balconies Cliffs Trail, which leads back to the Old Pinnacles Trail. We took the Balconies Cliffs Trail which completed the little loop. You could go back through the cave, but we recommend taking the Cliffs Trail, so you get the wonderful views.

When we returned to Red Tail, almost three hours later, we had covered 5.9 miles with an elevation gain of 712 feet. It was our 55th hike for the year.

There are two parts to the park, the east and the west, with no roads connecting the two. They are only connected via hiking trails. If you want a shorter hike to the Balconies Cave, you could park on the west side of the park. Keep in mind it is a long drive from one side of the park to another, about an hour and a half.

The rest of the day was spent back at our camp site, trying to stay cool. We were so thankful that our camp site was shaded. In the afternoon, Ann walked over and took a dip in the pool. The pool is not heated, so the water was shockingly cold. However, it didn’t take too long to get accustomed to the water temperature. The short swim was very refreshing. By the time Ann returned to our campsite, her hair was almost dry from the short walk.

For dinner, we had gazpacho, a Spanish cold tomato soup. It is such a refreshing meal on a hot day, especially when it is followed by ice cream. Keith had his ice cream in the form of a milkshake. Our hand blender came in handy, for blending the soup and the milkshake. Thankfully, the air cooled down quickly after the sun went down and we slept comfortably.

We had no Verizon cell signal in the campground, but we had an excellent AT&T signal. However, AT&T is on our phones and we have to use a hotspot to connect our other devices to it. Our AT&T plan has a limit on our hotspot data before starting to charge us for overages. Also, Keith’s iPad won’t do software updates when connected to a hotspot. A wifi connection is required. So we got out Starlink. Unfortunately, we forgot and left Starlink on overnight, which noticeably drained some of our batteries. Luckily, we got enough solar gain on Sunday to make up for it. We turned it off Sunday morning and put it away. Keith already completed his software updates and we didn’t want to forget to turn Starlink off again.

Sunday, we just hung out and relaxed. After sleeping in and eating a leisurely breakfast, Ann went for a walk before it got too hot. She walked the dirt road past the Visitor Center out to the Bacon and Butterfield Ranches, the same road we walked on Thursday evening when we arrived. Ann went further than we had gone on Thursday. She was able to determine that the first group of buildings was the Bacon Ranch while the old barn and windmill was the Butterfield Ranch. As she continued past the barn, she could see the East Entrance Station to the park.

As she started approaching route 25, she spotted an animal sitting next to the road. She zoomed in on it with her camera. It looked like a bobcat. After taking a few pictures, she realized she had not seen it move a muscle, or even see it breathing. Was it real? Or was it stuffed to discourage people from continuing down the road towards a private ranch. Ann started walking towards the animal again. Then it slowly turned its head towards her, so she stopped. Then it slowly turned its focus back to the field in front of it, becoming perfectly still again, scoping out its next prey. Ann decided to leave the bobcat alone, turned around and started heading back to camp.

We would not be surprised to hear that the park was at capacity on the holiday weekend. When we arrived on Thursday, the place was pretty empty. Only a handful of camp sites were occupied in the campground. About ten to twenty people were in the pool at any given time during the weekend.

There were only a couple of cars in the Old Pinnacles trailhead parking lot when we hiked the Bench Trail on Friday. However, campers showed up Friday for the long weekend. The campground was near or at capacity. When we returned from our hikes on Saturday and Monday, all of the parking lots were full. The large lot behind the Visitor Center looked pretty full as well.

We saved the best and hardest hike for Monday, our last day in Pinnacles. AllTrails calls the route Condor Gulch Trail to High Peaks Trail Loop. We took the loop in the clockwise direction.

Knowing that finding parking at the trailhead might be an issue, we repeated our routine of two days prior for the Old Pinnacles Trail hike. We were up at 6:30 am and reached the parking lot by 7 am, where we ate our breakfast and drank our coffee before starting our hike. When we arrived, there were plenty of spots to choose from, but it was starting to fill up fast. By the time we started our hike at 8 am, the lot was one third to half full, with people constantly arriving. There are a few smaller lots past the Bear Gulch nature center where we parked, but no oversized vehicles are allowed on the road to those other lots because the turn around at the end is rather tight.

Our route started out following the road, then went through the Bear Gulch cave. The caves in the park are rather unusual. They were formed by small streams cutting narrow gorges, then large boulders fell into the gorges, creating the roofs of the caves. Like the Balconies Cave, flashlights or headlamps are required. We found the Bear Gulch cave was not as dark as the Balconies Cave and it was more interesting.

When we emerged from the cave, we found ourselves at one end of the Bear Gulch Reservoir. After taking in the views of the reservoir, with its smooth surface reflecting images of the surrounding rocky cliffs, we headed up the Rim Trail past the Teaching Rock. Walking out onto the Teaching Rock was easy but sketchy, as slipping and falling would be disastrous. The Teaching Rock is an outcropping with a view. It reminded us of Pride Rock in the Lion King movie.

Turning onto the High Peaks Trail, we climbed up to High Peaks, in the heart of the rock formations of the park. After a series of switchbacks, we came to a saddle. There was a restroom building there. Not knowing how it would have been serviced, we didn’t check it out. We found some shade on the north side of the rocks where we sat down to enjoy our food, with a wonderful view to the north.

At the saddle, the trail splits. The High Peaks Trail continues on the right fork, through what they call the Steep and Narrows, that takes you up and over the High Peaks. This section is just as the name suggests and is slow going, not a place to be if you are afraid of heights. The fork to the left stays lower and is called the Tunnel Trail. We’re assuming it goes through at least one tunnel, but we didn’t go that way, so we don’t know what that trail is like.

The Steep and Narrows is a series of steps built into the rock faces along with railings in the exposed areas. Sometimes the steps are not full steps, but toeholds. The toeholds are large enough that we felt comfortable, both when we were climbing up and when we were climbing down. What we didn’t realize ahead of time is that we would be climbing both up and down the steps as the trail goes over the High Peaks. We originally decide to go clockwise around the loop because we thought that would mean that we would be going up the steps instead of down. However, going clockwise does mean that overall, you would be going up the steepest parts of the loop instead of down the steepest parts, which is what we prefer.

The views from the loop trail are gorgeous, much better than the views we got on the Old Pinnacles Trail and Balconies. From on top of the High Peaks, we could see over to the Balconies along with the Chaparral Parking Area on the west side of the park.

After emerging from the Steep and Narrows, we spotted a bird sitting on top of one of the rocky spires. We’re not sure if it was a turkey vulture or a California condor. Since we only know how to tell them apart by the white markings on the underside of their wings, we could not identify it as it sat with its wings folded up. Pinnacles is one of the release sites of the California condor, part of the efforts to reintroduce them to the wild. However, what we saw was more than likely a turkey vulture.

From the High Peaks Trail, we turned onto the Condor Gulch Trail to return to the Bear Gulch Day Use Area, where Red Tail was parked. We returned to Red Tail after covering six miles with an elevation gain of 1614 feet in four and a half hours. It was hike number 43 of our National Parks Series 52 Hike Challenge.

If you only want to hike one trail in Pinnacles, this loop is the one we would recommend. It is listed as a hard trail, but we would probably put it on the low end of hard. What makes it hard is the Steep and Narrows. At least for us, it was just challenging enough to make it fun.

After our hike, we went inside the Bear Gulch Nature Center. There was a short movie about the park playing on a loop. We sat down and watched it while cooling off in the air conditioning.

We’re glad we hiked the High Peaks on Monday instead of on Saturday. When we finished our hike around 12:30 pm, temperatures were reaching into the low 90’s. Two days prior, the temps crossed into the 100’s. Much of the High Peaks along with the Condor Gulch Trail is exposed, with little to no shade. Getting an early start and bringing lots of water was the key to staying comfortable. We brought around 3 liters of water each and almost needed it all. We also added electrolytes to our second liter of water. Being dehydrated or having an electrolyte imbalance is not fun and can turn deadly. Having some experience with that at Guadalupe Mountain National Park the previous year (Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Texas - August 4th - 7th, 2023), we have a renewed respect for the heat.

When we left the Bear Gulch Day Use Area around 1 pm, the parking lot was still full with cars circling, waiting for a parking spot to empty. However, when we returned to the campground, the crowds were gone. Since check out time for the campground was 11 am, most people had left. So just like that, the park felt empty again, like it was when we arrived on Thursday. Only a handful of campers remained in the campground. The pool was empty. The overflow parking lot behind the visitor center had also emptied.

Back at camp, we took showers to refresh ourselves. Then we relaxed, enjoying the peace and quiet, watching the bevy of quail and a rafter of wild turkey grazing in our campground loop.

Even though we didn’t know ahead of time what to expect at Pinnacles National Park, we scheduled five nights there since it was a national park. And we’re glad we did. We needed the extra days to keep from hiking in the heat of the day, and to relax while enjoy all of the wildlife. The pool was definitely a nice surprise, especially in the heat.

Check out our related video: Pinnacles National Park, California

(Ann)