High Peaks Loop, Pinnacles National Park, CA

 Me Amongst Rock Spires @ Pinnacles National Park

Mileage: 9 miles, plus or minus.

Elevation Gain/Loss: 1465 ft.

Trail Condition: Very Well Maintained, some section going to the High Peaks are on footsteps carved on rocks.

An Almost Vertical Ascent, Thanks to the Small Footholds Carved on Rock and the Pipe for handrails to allow non-technical rock climbers to continue hiking

Cave Trail Conditions: well marked and maintained, lights are needed since some sections are very dark. 

Highlights: -Rock Spires, Ancient Volcanic Landscape, Cave exploration,  California Condor habitat.

Rock Spires @ Pinnacles

The Pinnacles National Park is California's newest National Park, in addition to Yosemite National Park, Sequoia National Park, Kings Canyon National Park, Death Valley National Park, Channel Islands National Park, Redwood National Park, Joshua Tree National Park and Lassen Volcanic National Park. Established as National Park from a National Monument previously, The Pinnacles National Park is US 59th National Park.

Bear Gulch Reservoir @ Pinnacles National Monument

We visited Pinnacles National Park during our Central California Vacation last year's thanksgiving vacation ( thanksgiving 2012). At that time, it was still a National Monument. From Big Sur, we drove North past Monterey to the East entrance of Pinnacles National Monument, in Paicines, CA, east of Salinas Valley, in Central California.

Our hike in Pinnacles compared to the hikes we did in Big Sur the previous days was totally so out of this worldly because it seemed we were all of a sudden transported to such a different world full of rocks. The diversity of California's landscape sometimes is still beyond imagination for me. One moment you are in the ocean next to the redwood forests in Big Sur,

Scenery in Big Sur ( where we came from before our trip to Pinnacles )

and the next moment, you are in this ancient volcanic landscape full of rock spires everywhere.

Both however share several things in common, one of them is that they both are released sites for the endangered mighty California condor.

To learn more about Pinnacles National Park and its other trails, please visit the park's site here. Below are some more pictures we took from our hike @ Pinnacles, which actually was a combination of many trails, but called as one loop, High Peaks Loop Trail. This hike however can be shortened or lengthened depending on the trails one will add. We chose this one because we wanted to see most of the features of Pinnacles in one day, for we have to go back to the coast on the same day.

Hikers @ Pinnacles

Colored Rocks

Hiking the High Peaks Trail

More Rock Spires

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