Pinnacles National Monument

Pinnacles National Monument
22-23 Apr, 2011

It is no news that people who do not plan generally have to take things as they are thrown at them. Pinnacles National Monument will be partially remembered by me as a lesson in this regard.

I left the office on Friday afternoon at 2pm. I had the campground booked for Friday night. The weekend dates Sat and Sun were booked, i had done my booking only last week. I woke up (it was Wed last week) and started looking for some camping options. Pinnacles was there on my list and after 20 mins of browsing, i just made the call and booked the closest weekend spot.

The visitor center closes at 5pm, my plan was to reach there by 4:30 pm. It was a 2 hr drive, so i had to leave at 2:30 pm. I had to make food, fortunately i had done the shopping earlier. Food was ditched at the last instant, back again with pita bread and hummus :) , i also got pasta from office that was served as part of friday lunch. After packing, i was out of my house at 2:55 pm. Already late!


Pinnacles peak has two entrances, one on east side and one on west side. I had not researched any of that and i was shooting for west side entrance. Turns out that west and east side are not connected and my campground was not on east side - gone are the hopes of reaching visitor center. And it started raining, very little drops and i had not planned for rain at all. But who cares, i started towards the east side. 101 turned into highway 25 and boy! it was so beautiful driving on 25, loved it. Green grass, grass going over small hills, farming, no houses, blue skies, the mistake turns into a blessing.

Found my campground, in my curve of learning camping, this was time to start fire, i had taken firewood and three types of lighters, ultimately it was the matchbox that came to the rescue. Tent setup was easy as the ground was soft. It had stopped raining and the night was quite bright. The stars were awesome, so many stars. Campground was full, people cozily sitting around fire everywhere, chatting, fooding and enjoying. I also sat next to my fire and just stared at the fire. Peace, happiness after such a long time.

The hike in morning was very interesting. I reached the trailhead after packing all my stuff at 8 am. I took the Old Pinnacles Trail, going up to High Peaks trail and then reaching the west entrance, coming back by Balconies cave. What an amazing 9 mile trail, i climbed a rocky hill, went through a tunnel, went through a dark cave with flashlights and walked next to a creek for 4 miles. Very diverse trail, from pure rocky terrain to caves and to walking next to a river bed. The best part was the Balconies cave, it was fun going through them, pitch darkness and rocks everywhere.


I pulled ITB band next to my knees after the half way and then decided to come back after the first hike. The original plan was to do two hikes. It was also getting very hot. Had a big pasta lunch (carboload :) ) and came back on 25.

Pics can be found here -