With our interest in hiking that started in 2021, Rick and I have begun exploring the National Parks. While we've been to several parks in the past, our focus was not on hiking then. Our first adventure was at Pinnacles National Park and I was so impressed that I had to write this blog! We plan to borrow Liz and Clair's tradition of taking a photo next to the park signs, so here's the first entry.
First of all, the location. When I sent the first set of pictures to the kids, Ethan responded "Where are you guys? I thought Pinnacles was in Arizona!" It's not, it's in central California, just east of Gilroy, a little over 2 hours from our house. We took a slight detour there on our recent trip down to the central coast, and on the way back as I was driving up Highway 101, Rick was reading about Pinnacles on his phone and he looked over to his right and took this photo.
You can see the peaks of the mountains on the west side of the park from the highway! We have driven that route dozens of times and had never noticed them.
Rick's reading uncovered some interesting history. The mountains are part of an extinct volcano, but they moved over 200 miles north as part of the movement of the San Andreas fault.
I recall learning about this a long time ago in school but this was the first time I had actually seen something related to that. I found this fascinating, but am glad we hadn't read about all that land movement BEFORE we were in the caves. If you're interested in more detail, you can read about it here.
Before we left, Rick's initial research uncovered that there are two entrances into Pinnacles, one from the West and one from the East. Based on the time we had, the hiking difficulty we wanted, and the "biggest bang for the buck" in scenery, we chose to enter the East side of the park.
As you can see below, you can't go through the park from one side to another, so this is an important initial decision.
We read about the hikes available in Pinnacles in Alltrails. There are many peaks, canyons, and at least two places where there are caves to explore. There is also a trail where you might see the California Condors, because Pinnacles joined the recovery program in 2003. Based on our criteria above, we chose the Moses Spring Trail to Bear Gulch Reservoir. I read that there were two sets of caves on this route, upper and lower. In my reading I learned that often one or both sets of caves is closed due to flooding, rockfalls, or other emergencies. It is also home to a colony of bats! I admit this made me a bit nervous, but we never saw or heard anything related to the bats. It turns out they are Townsend's big-eared bats, and they rest there in winter and raise their young in the late spring and summer. The colony in the Bear Gulch Cave is the largest maternity colony between San Francisco and Mexico. If you want more info about the bats or the schedule when the caves are usually open, you can read about it here. We went on February 21st, which turns out to be a good time, not just because of the cooler weather but because the caves were open.
While this trail is advertised as 1.2 miles long with an elevation gain of 300 feet, it was definitely more strenuous than it sounded due to the caves. At times you were squeezing through tight areas or bending down to walk. At one point I thought I was going to have to crawl on my hands and knees! Below I share a detailed walk-through of the hike, as well as some of the learning. If you don't want all the details or as many photos, you can get a quick version from my Relive video here.
The initial part of the trail was fairly easy. It was well-maintained and pretty level. The only issue was the crowds, although it was a Monday when we were there it was President's Day. For some reason I thought people would be DONE with their holiday weekend but many were still wrapping up their time at Pinnacles.
`You're walking along the trail with trees overheard and a creek down below, and suddenly you look up and there are MOUNTAINS! That was my first clue that this hike was going to be something really special. Here are a few of the shots I caught. In the second one you can see a climber on the mountain. Turns out Pinnacles is a very popular spot to rock-climb.
As we approached the caves, you could see the entrance. I overheard one teenage girl who was going the other direction say "Yeah, I thought that cave was cool but it was NOTHIN' compared to what comes after." That was my first clue what the caves were like.
I had no experience with caves other than "The Caves" as we always called the spot near the Ranch, where big rocks are piled in the river and you can go between and below some of them. I recall being a bit squeamish about getting stuck or not being able to get out when I was a kid, but I tried to put that aside, along with any thoughts of bats. I guess I hadn't done very much research because I expected large caves with stalactites and dripping water. Well, I got the dripping water part right!
After passing through that first little cave, you continue down a trail. Up ahead you can see the narrow entrance. I remember thinking "It's a good thing we didn't already get the cookies!" One of our favorite stops on the central coast are two cookie stores, Cowboy Cookies in SLO and our newly discovered Red Moose Cookies in Cambria. Red Moose has a sign warning "Get Your Fat Pants Ready" and looking at this first entrance definitely brought that to mind.
As we entered the lower caves I realized this wasn't so much a "cave" as it was a collection of rocks piled on each other. Luckily I wasn't thinking about being on an earthquake fault at that point! But I did start to think "Now where did I put that flashlight?"
The trail was well-maintained throughout, including stairs and handrails. Thank goodness, even with a flashlight it was pretty dark in places so it's good to have that extra support.
We passed several people with headlamps, and I think that would be an excellent investment if you're going to do much cave-hiking! Between my hiking pole and my phone for photos, I didn't really have an extra hand for a flashlight.
There were places you had to bend low. I began to realize that hiking poles were more hindrance than help on this trail.
Throughout the caves you could hear trickling water but you could rarely see it. A couple of times I pointed my phone down and took a picture, hoping the flash on my camera would illuminate better than our flashlight. Wayyyy down there was water!
There were several tricky parts to the lower caves, but this was one of the hardest. I think it should be titled "how low can you go?" I was able to fit beneath it, almost dropping to my knees. This is where we learned that having a backpack on, even a small one, was less than ideal. I guess if you're going to carry a full picnic or anything to the reservoir you shouldn't go through the caves!
After a few more sets of stairs and some twists and turns we were out! I now had an understanding of what that teenager was talking about.
We continued hiking along the trail. More beautiful rock scenery.
About this time I was wondering "how much further is it?" so I pulled up the "Relive" app I was using to track our hike. I think the pattern shown by our back and forth in the caves was really funny!
Next were the upper caves. I didn't take as many photos here, but to my recollection they were shorter, shallower, and had a tricky water crossing that was about a foot side with no handrail. We were trailing an older couple, so when I took this shot it has a complete stranger in it.
You can see another of the "thank goodness no cookies" parts of the pathway, and ahead of the woman in the photo are the steps that lead out of the upper caves, ending at the reservoir. They are very narrow and definitely "one way". But once you make your way up them, you are treated to a beautiful view of the reservoir! As you can see, we're still working on our selfie skills...
You could tell that the reservoir was the rest stop for lots of people. There were groups of people sitting around with picnics or snacks, and some very fat squirrels! I was disappointed to see that swimming isn't allowed, though. But the mountains continued to astound us. Now I see where the name "pinnacles" and "peaks" comes from. If you look closely at the photo on the right you can see very tall skinny peaks. There were definitely more trails from here but we were ready to turn back. We still had a long drive ahead!
Now our dilemma was the best way to return. We really didn't want to climb down through the caves, and according to the map I'd looked at initially there appeared to be a trail that ran parallel to the one we had taken originally. The map provided by the park fooled us into thinking we had to go up, but that was going to take us on a trail called "High Peaks", and at that time of day we didn't have an appetite for that! We took a wrong turn and ended up scrambling around an area of the upper caves that I'm pretty sure was NOT on the path, but we weren't the only ones as there were shoe prints in the soft sand. Again I used the Relive app to check our progress and got this funny shot.
After a perilious climb up some crumbly rock we made our way out to the Moses Spring trail for an uneventful hike back down. More gorgeous scenery, including this amazing view down the canyon.
A few shots from the trail back. The one in the top middle is not as perilious as it looks, You had to bend your head a bit but otherwise you didn't really notice that slant until I looked back. On the bottom left you can see an example of one of the many numbered trail markers we noticed on the trail. I figure it's a point of interest but I couldn't find any information on it. The bottom middle is looking straight up, you can see why climbers like this trail!
As we approached the car it was late afternoon and the light was so pretty I had to capture a few more shots.
Hopefully by now you can see why I was so impressed by this park! Rick and I are now working on our plans for the next National Park hike so stay tuned. In the meantime, the scenery on the way to and from this park was also pretty. It doesn't give a hint of the mountains and canyons found in Pinnacles, but it had a beauty all its own.
To share some of the learning from this trip:
Pay attention to estimates of park traffic. We thought a Monday in February would be a good time, but it was still pretty crowded when we arrived due to the President's Day holiday. The park has campgrounds so I expect many people were there for the long weekend, as well as a lot of day-trippers like us. As it was, we waited for 15 minutes or so to enter the park.
There is limited parking, but they do have an overflow lot and a shuttle that takes you deeper into the park. By the time we entered, shortly after noon, we were able to find a spot near the visitor's center. There was another parking lot further up which would have been more convenient, so next time we'll try to go mid-week and park there.
Don't carry anything extra. We had our hiking poles and they were definitely not worth it. Between the inconvenience of holding them and the narrow spaces, they were more trouble then they were worth.
You will be in tight spaces so a camera case or backpack that's not tightly attached to your body could be a problem. We both had small backpacks and at times when you bent over to navigate the trail they were scraping on the walls.
We had read that flashlights were recommended and had a small one with us, which was better than using the one on our phones. But we saw people with HEADLAMPS which were the BOMB. One less thing to hold in your hand. It would definitely be worth it to borrow or buy some if you could.
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