Blog Post by: Korin
Pinnacles is a relatively small national park east of the Salinas Valley in Central California. The Park is known for its rock formations and is split into an east and west side with only trails connecting the sides together and also has talus caves that house bats. Pinnacles is home to California condors, the largest flight bird in North America. We stayed in the east side at the only campground the park offers.
Even though Matt and I went to college relatively close by, neither one of us had ever visited Pinnacles, as it was a national monument until 2013, when President Obama made it a national park. Heading into the park from Yosemite, we had low expectations and thought it would be a “check off the list” park for us as we had visited every California park except this one. We were pleasantly surprised by the unique hikes, condors, rock formations and caves the Pinnacles had to offer.
After we set up camp, we went to a condor viewing station and the campground attendant was nice enough to show us several condors that were hanging out in faraway trees. We looked at them through binoculars and were pretty excited that we saw these birds just after getting into the area. The next morning, we started hiking by 6:55am on a 6-mile loop hike. Our route took the Condor Gulch trail to the High Peaks Trail to the Bear Gulch trail. After the first few steep miles, the hike exceeded our expectations by including railings and footholds into the pinnacle formations. Once at the top, we watched turkey vultures soar silently above us, however, although we saw condors in the trees, we didn’t see any fly. We continued to the Bear Gulch area and had lunch at the reservoir. Unfortunately, we were unable to climb into the Bear Gulch Cave due to closure for the bat colonies. The trail was beginning to become more crowded and the heat index was climbing, thus we were happy that we had accomplished hiking the whole loop by 11:30am. Later that evening, we did see a condor take flight while we were walking around in the campground.
The following morning, we were set to meet former students of Matt’s to hike the Old Pinnacles trail to the Balconies Cave. Danielle and Ken, who live in Monterey, met us at the trailhead at 6:05am. To our surprise, Megan, another former student was with them. Matt was beyond happy to see all of them! We started hiking to the caves on what was a beautiful morning. The hike was relatively flat and the company, conversation, and views were priceless. We made it to the Balconies Cave, put our headlamps on, and scrambled our way down into it. It was a fun part of the hike and I wish it could have been longer. On our way back, I was in the back of our pack and noticed familiar looking children walking by us in the opposite direction. I looked up the trail and saw one of my closest childhood friends, Toni Cruz! What were the odds of running into her and her family while hiking in Pinnacles National Park! We were both giddy and couldn’t believe it. We caught up for a few minutes but had to say our goodbyes too quickly. I was so delighted to see her and her family, it was such a great surprise. After our hike, our family and Matt’s former students had lunch together back at the trailer. It was so much fun to see and catch up with Danielle, Ken and Megan. We said our goodbye and loaded up to drive to our next destination.
Love it!!