Have you ever booked a vacation without any expectations of what the destination will be like?
Pinnacles National Park was a bit like that for me. The hubby & I planned a 2 month trip taking our trailer out and we would be stopping at about 11 national parks. We planned out all of the campgrounds. For Pinnacles NP, we stayed at the park campground on the east side of the park.
As we drove into the park, I kept wondering why this was a national park. It reminded me a bit of the property where I grew up. Grasses and big oak trees, but certainly nothing warranting national park status.
We got settled into the campground which turned out to be really nice. We had regular guests stopping by behind our trailer each evening and morning.
We saw quite a bit of other wildlife including turkeys, turkey vultures and California condors. (We learned later on that not all the big birds circling are condors. The white underwings indicate the condors versus the vultures)
The day after we arrived, we headed up to do a hike and the parking lot was full before 9:30AM! For a Tuesday, not during spring break, we were surprised that it was so full. We found a parking spot down a mile from the trailhead. We followed a lovely trail up the mile to the ranger station and were pleasantly surprised that there was something really beautiful about the trail. (The road up was fairly unimpressive, so we weren’t expecting much from the trail except just a way to get from point a to point b.)
On the trail up, there were spots that were very lush and green. The stream flowing provided quite a bit of needed water for everything in that valley.
We noticed on the way up, the stream would be flowing, there were small waterfalls and then the water pooled and just stopped. In spite of seeing the water flow into the small pool, it didn’t continue to flow. Then further up the trail, there was new stream that hadn’t been the one from below. I figured the water went underground and then came back out elsewhere, but the ranger said that the water we were seeing was the result of recent rains and it wouldn’t continue to flow. Strange!
We’re glad we stopped at the ranger station as she gave us some really good tips on where to hike. We had planned one hike, but she said the High Peaks Trail was a much better option if we were comfortable with hand railings and steps cut into the rocks. We were comfortable with that!
We headed up the Condor Gulch Overlook trail and then continued on to the High Peaks Trail.
The views just kept getting better and I will say, the photos do NOT do it justice! This is not a park that is a drive-through. For one thing, you can’t. The east side and west sides of the park are not accessible to one another by roads. They are only connected by trails.
As we continued toward the high peaks, the views out showed a very different topography than was visible from below.
From the top, we were able to see the east side of the park. I was surprised at how small the park is. With a couple of days, we could do all the hikes and easily hike from the east side to the west side.
As we got to the top, we got to the railings and stairs cut into the rocks. It was pretty cool and the views were just beautiful!
As we rounded the top, we found a bathroom and then as we started to head down, there were wonderful switchbacks built into the trail making the descent fairly easy. (That is one nice thing about most national park trails. Trails are well done and usually have easier grades than other trails)
As we finished up, there was a small side trail to a cave with a waterfall which we went to find. The cave was much cooler inside. It was a nice way to almost end the hike (we still had about a bit to go to get back to the truck, but the biggest part of the hike was done at this point)
The flowers along the way that day were very pretty. The thistles were a really pretty pink and we saw a Mariposa Lily as well.
We also found a massive pinecone along the path as well. Greg picked it up and it was the size of his palm!
Overall, we loved Pinnacles and will plan a trip to go back and spend more time there. It is a long drive from just about anywhere, but once you’re in the park and start hiking, it is beautiful!!
As we started out that day, I questioned what Teddy Roosevelt saw in this place, but by the end of the day, I figured it out and completely agree with him! I’m glad he saw enough when he visited to later reserve this land as a national park!