On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
frosty
Pinnacles is named for the volcanic peaks rising from the many faults in the area. There are two unconnected sides to the park; we were on the east side that has the only campground, where we stayed. The west side may have better views, but the access is from a long winding, occasionally one-lane road. We opted out of a day trip to that side and instead went on two short hikes.
Bear Gulch Cave Trail goes up to a talus cave (boulders piled on each other). Condor Gulch Trail goes to an overlook with a good view of the pinnacles, and as it turned out, a view of two of the ~90 California Condors who have settled in or near the park after being raised in captivity. In 1987, the last 22 condors were captured in 1987 and bred at the San Diego Wild Animal Park and the LA Zoo. They have been released into the wild since 1991 in Central California, Arizona, Utah, and Baja California.
Along with the condors, there were a few other interesting birds in and around the park.
California Condor. Getting a picture (even a bad one with too short of a lens) of one of the ~330 condors in the wild was the high point of the visit.
View of the Pinnacles from Bear Gulch parking lot
Entrance to Bear Gulch Cave
Bear Gulch Reservoir
View of the Pinnacles from the reservoir
Looking back on the Condor Gulch Trail
California Scrub Jay. Nice of the bird to stand still long enough for me to get a picture.
Acorn Woodpecker looking out its nest in a power pole at the campground. There must have been a dozen in and around the area. I love the clown face on these guys.
Chris T.
Pinnacles has half a volcano; the other half is down near LA.
raven
My dad coached the Cal-Hi Condors in the late 50’s. If I recall they had a huge cage in the San Diego Zoo.
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raven
Here’s a picture of it.
eclare
I’d never even heard of this national park, thanks! Great news about the California Condor.
Yutsano
When a frosty post turns into Albatrossity birb post! I love the jay but the woodpecker peeking out of the nest is *chef’s kiss* beautiful!
MobiusKlein
I went there last March. Nearly froze my ass off. Got out just before it rained like hell.
High point of the trip was seeing a rainbow from above at noonish.
Doc H
Pinnacles is a gem! I hiked up to the top of the High Peaks Trail (in 2022) and made myself a cup of coffee while I waited for the sun to warm things up and get the condors moving. An A+ experience.
frosty
@raven: We saw California and Andean Condors both in the San Diego Zoo earlier on the same trip. Huge birds up close!
frosty
@Yutsano: High praise! I’m getting better (now that I spent a little more money on gear). Turns out that seeing the birds is one of the reasons I like to visit the parks. I had no idea that was going to happen when we started these trips in 2020!
Wapiti
We went to Pinnacles in ~2003. Came around a corner on the trail and there was a condor adolescent perched on a rock maybe 10 yards away. There was a human minder there; they explained that the bird was being introduced into the wild and part of that was training the bird not to approach humans. The minder had a super soaker watergun to do the training. The condor seemed uninterested in us.
Alison Rose
Great photos! I’ve never been there, but my dad and brothers took a camping trip there once, and one of my brothers got a t-shirt that said “Go sit on a Pinnacle” :P
Mike Mundy
I was camping there in 2012 near a tall pine tree that turned out to be a turkey vulture bedroom.
louc
California condors are thriving at the Grand Canyon. I think when I was there two years ago, there were 80ish? We saw one fly overhead while on a bike tour between Pima Point and Hermit’s Rest. There was also a team of twitchers hawk spotting at Yaki Point and we saw a condor there as well.
sempronia
The High Peaks trail was lousy with condors in spring 2019. They are four times larger than the turkey vultures, and they’re tagged. I have a great shot of number 96, very exciting because I remember when there were only about 20 left in the world.
Dmbeaster
Was there a few years ago. For anyone with decent fitness, I strongly recommend the High Peaks Trail which can be accessed in a number of different ways.
You are almost guaranteed a condor sighting, though bring binoculars as the typical sighting is soaring far overhead. The birds are immediately obvious as they are much bigger than anything except a golden eagle (and are noticable bigger than those), and they have unmistakable white markings on the underside of their wings, which is what you will see as they soar overhead. Golden eagles are also resident there.
I was lucky and had a great sighting. An adult condor chose to perch on a rock pinnacle about 30 yards away, and sat there for 15 minutes. The take off was memorable. They have visible tag numbers on their wings, and you can go online and read the history of that bird.
And while sitting there, a resident peregrine flashed by about 50 yards above us, my only sighting of this bird in the wild. Did not get to see it for long, but it’s flight profile and speed let no doubt.
The Pinnacles are the eroded remnant of a volcanic field located in Southern California around 23 million years ago. This volcanism was the result of classic subduction by the ancestral Farallon plate which was then the dominant feature along the western margin of North America. It was also located on the San Andreas fault which was then in its infancy, and would become the new plate boundary once subduction ended. It then moved the west side of the volcanic field 195 miles to the north over the next 23 million years. The east margin is in the far northwest corner of Los Angeles County.
The exact location 23 million years ago was probably a short distance to the southeast, as the North American Plate is also moving northwestward, but at a much slower rate. This creates the impression of right lateral movement on the San Andreas fault because of the large plate speed movement of the Pacific Plate, even though both are moving northwestward. The dominant motion of the North American Plate is westward, but is being dragged northwestward along the plate boundary by the much more aggressive movement of the Pacific plate.
way2blue
@Chris T.:
My first thought too. FWIW. Correlation of the Pinnacles volcanic rocks with the Neenach volcanics ~195 miles to the SE is a famous piercing point for documenting the growth & scale of the San Andreas fault system. Overcoming long-standing skepticism that a fault could be that long and host sustained slip for tens of millions of years. (With a hat tip to Tom Dibblee)
BigJimSlade
Hey, Pinnacles! I was there in, hmm, maybe 1979? I remember thinking it was pretty cool :-)
sab
I lived in central California for about four years. Pinnacles was high up on my must see list. My ex always vetoed it. Part of why he is my ex.
hotshoe
As Frosty notes, there are two sides of Pinnacles, and the east side (south of Hollister) is more accessible, 40-minute easy drive from the city, winding through agricultural countryside. Then, surprise, turn one corner and there’s the Pinnacles!
Talus caves are formed when huge boulders fall then block the sky over a narrow gulch. Where the gulch is long and the boulders thick enough to prevent light from filtering in — such as Pinnacles — it is as thrilling an adventure as you might like, completely dark if you turn off your flashlight.
To protect nesting bats, Bear Gulch cave has been divided into two sections and walkers can pass through the main (lower) section fall/winter/spring months of the year. The entire cave including the upper section is usually open the last week in March and a week in October, sometimes longer.
If you have a flexible schedule, it’s worth planning to visit Pinnacles one of those two weeks and take the hike up Bear Gulch through the whole cave. Not handicap accessible but it’s okay for kids and also for old folks with ordinary ability to walk a mile, no technical skills needed.
Whatever you wish, best not to visit in mid summer as the daily high temperature is often over 100F and the single-digit humidity (which feels great, sweat doesn’t stick to ya) makes it easy to become dangerously dehydrated.
Have fun and stay safe!