Pinnacles NP 10/27-28

 I've never been to Pinnacles National Park despite living 2.5 hours away so I decided to head over and spend some time exploring. I got to the park around noon on Friday and checked in to my site. I drove to Bear Gulch and visited the caves. The upper caves were a bit tight and I had to crawl in quite a few spaces. Exiting the caves I stopped at the reservoir and did something I never do when hiking: stopped. I took a nap, read a little of The Lord of the Rings and generally lounged around for a couple hours. I returned via the rim trail. I wasn't sure what my campsite would be like but as luck would have it I was surrounded by trees and shrubs amidst an otherwise desert. No generator in the campground made a quiet evening.

Saturday morning I parked again at Bear Gulch and headed up the recommended High Peaks Trail. I was in the shadow of the hills in the early morning but noticed the temperature change halfway up the climb. Reaching the ridge I got much better views of the pinnacles than I did yesterday. I continued on and climbed up the switchbacks in the increasing heat. I was amazed to see a bathroom at the top, but did nothing to investigate further. I scrambled to the top of a formation there and got some pretty awesome views of the park.



From there I continued on the some of the most impressive trail building I've seen. Several sections of steps blasted out of the rock going near vertical in some places. Cliffs encroached over the trail and I was glad the handrails were there.

I kept my eyes open for condors but didn't see any despite the rangers saying they were fairly common. Even though there were no birds, the rocks were abundant. I made my way back down the Condor Gulch trail and was glad I started so early as I passed dozens of hikers making their way up the hot brushy canyon.

Having never been to this park I'm glad I decided to go. It's a small enough park to easily hit the hotspots in a day and see 90% of it in a weekend trip. I think next time I'll do the Chalone Peak Trail; I caught glimpses of the lookout from the High Peaks Trail and would like to investigate.