Hiking to the Top of Pinnacles National Park

Moving towards the coast allowed us to be close enough to make a day trip to another national park. Pinnacles was up-graded from a national monument to a national park in 2013, so it's not on most people's itinerary. But we were surprised to see that the parking lots were already filling up on a week day morning. The car in front of us got the last parking space where we intended to start hiking. So instead of heading up the steep High Peaks Trail, suddenly our plan had changed and we were heading up the flat hiking route to the Balconies Cliff Cave.

The first part of the trail was pretty calm, but Mark thought it was interesting to see the occasional green rock. It just didn't seem to fit in with the other dark rocks around us.

Denisa liked the wildflowers that are beginning to pop up in the valley. We are obviously easily entertained.

We walked for over a mile without seeing any evidence of why this park is called "Pinnacles." We were definitely on a flat trail with no spires in sight. The best part of the hike seemed to be the fact we were hiking behind a family with 5 girls (ages 2-10). As we started scrambling up the rocks toward the cave we found out that Mom was 20-weeks pregnant with a boy. We all agreed that this little boy will have lots of mothering.

When we got to the cave, the little family let us go in first. We immediately saw stacks of boulders all around us. We found out that this cave was actually a slot canyon that was capped by boulders that sealed off the canyon from the top.

There was plenty of light in the entry, so we could see the big boulders that have fallen from somewhere--perhaps that pinnacle that has eluded us so far.

We thought we had gotten to the end of the trail when we found ourselves in a dark corner. But one of the little girls behind us pointed out the group of people crawling out of the ceiling. I guess that's where the trail goes.

We had a flashlight to help us find our way through the narrow series of wet tunnels. No pictures because there was no light. But we are proud to say that we made it all the way through Balconies Cliff Cave. As our little junior ranger friend said, "I see light at the end of the tunnel!"

Again, we saw round boulders that had rolled into the narrow openings from above. These round tallus boulders looked like giant marbles. Denisa had to do some serious limbo moves to get through some of the passage-ways.

At the other end of the cave, Mark climbed up the 40-foot granite wall to see if there was an alternate path out. But all he got out of that climb were some interesting pictures of Denisa waiting for him back on the ground.

We had hiked 2.5 miles, and the easy way back to the car was to turn around and go back the same way. But that seems so redundant, and we always prefer a good loop hike. So we headed into new territory.

The only problem with this loop hike is it must go over the mountain. We immediately started some steep ascents.

But the scenery also went from flat to lumpy as we started seeing some of the rock formations that make Pinnacle National Park famous.

We stopped often to take in the awesome scenery (and it gave us a chance to catch our breath from going uphill all the time).

We also found some interesting wildflowers at this elevation. We have seen purple thistle on many occasions, but this red thistle was new to us.

We also saw some bright red paintbrush wildflowers along the trail.

As the elevation increased, so did our heart rates. This might be the reason the ranger had suggested the flat cave trail instead of the steep High Peaks trail. It was about this time that we spotted the first condor soaring above the rocks. It's hard to tell from this distance, but he has a wingspan of 9.8 feet and is the largest North American land bird.

Califoria condors were extinct in the wild in 1987. At that time there were 27 left in captivity. But with lots of help, it is believed there are now 435 total California Condors. We had read that they are often sighted at Pinnacles National Park. In fact, this is a bird release area for any condors bred in captivity.

We spotted the first one by the signature white under their wings. If you look closely on the underside of his wings, you can see that this is condor #30. We could find out that this is a male, whose parents are #45 and #25. He is currently paired with #75, and has offspring of #99 and #00.

We are getting quite a show today from these guys circling the rock spires at Pinnacles National Park. There are 27 free-flying California condors managed by the park staff here. These birds also co-mingle with the 35 birds in the Big Sur flock.

As we were going up those endless switchbacks, it was great motivation to hurry to the next opening to the sky to see if another condor was swooping our way. We had forgotten about the steep trail because the birds were so interesting!

We finally made it to the top of the peaks, where we could look down over the valley of rock formations beneath us.

It's hard to tell how big some of these rocks are until you put a person beside them. You can barely see Mark to the far right in the picture below.

There are steps chiseled into the granite of the rock face, and Mark raced ahead on this evil stair case so Denisa could take his picture from the bottom. You can't tell from this distance, but he is breathing really hard after that climb. He's up there smiling, because he knows that after taking the picture, Denisa is going to have to make that climb up as well.

We were looking for a sign to let us know that we had made it to the pinnacle of Pinnacle Park. But we're pretty sure such a sign does not exist. We just kept going up, and then down a little, and then up, and then. . .

We were advised not to take the Tunnel section of the loop hike. Instead we were told that the views from the High Peaks Trail were much better. We did enjoy the great views, and what's adding another three-quarters of mile to the hike anyway? You can see Denisa on the trail in the foreground, enjoying the sites but getting a bit weary by now.

When we got to one section of the High Peaks trail there was a warning sign that the trail ahead would be narrow and very steep. That sounds like a challenge to us, so we kept going. The good news is that there were metal rails added to most of the steepest sections.

We had been warned that this was a narrow trail, and they weren't kidding. A large person would have some trouble making it between the metal rail and the granite boulder in places.

We were always on the lookout for more condors from our new vantage points. We were fooled by some turkey vultures because they look similar from the top, and we were high enough to see birds from the top now. But as quickly as the condors appeared earlier in our hike, they also disappeared from our view for the rest of the day.

We found the other wildlife today by looking down instead of up. He was well hidden, but if you look carefully among the sticks and stones he will see a horned toad blending in with his habitat.

He didn't mind posing for pictures, and is easier to see when he moved to sun on a nearby rock.

Our little out-and-back 5 mile trail, keeps growing longer. We had to keep remembering that we love these loop trails as our legs got more and more tired. We could now look across the rock formations to see "The Balconies" in the distance. That's where we were earlier this morning inside the cave.

The last three miles were all downhill. At times we jogged just because it was easier than walking at that incline. As we headed into the valley, we also started seeing more wildflowers. That meant Denisa had to stop occasionally to take pictures.

Mark got more interested in finding one of the flowers mentioned in the park brochure once he heard its name. For some reason "Sticky Monkeyflower" was more fun to find than a "little orange-ish yellow flower with a white throat."

We also saw large sections of the trail where it was hard to place a hiking boot without squishing one of these black caterpillars.

We're not sure what beautiful butterfly these will become. But the only thing beautiful now is the flower they were snacking on.

We found lots of this bright green miner's lettuce. We didn't gather any in the national park, but we read that these fleshy green plants can be a tasty addition to a salad. Their name comes from the fact that many of the gold miners from the 1840's used them as an easy salad.

According to Denisa's Garmin, we had hiked more than ten miles today. Ten miles feels a lot further when there are steep elevation changess up and down. We were ready to sit down by the time we got back to the car. We had a nice ride back to our camp site through miles of agricultural land. We love to see all those grape orchards draped across the valley.

There is more agriculture here than just plants. We also saw herds of cattle on the rolling green hillsides. We see lush grass so tall that it's tickling the bellies of those cows.