Pinnacles National Park was the last of California’s national parks that we had to visit and honestly I wasn’t that excited to go but we wanted to tick it off the list. Having been there now I can honestly say it’s one of the better ones! Read on to find out what we got up to in our two days visiting Pinnacles National Park.

The first thing to note about Pinnacles National Park is that it is pretty remote. Which isn’t rare for California’s national parks, but if you’re in an RV like us, it’s down some pretty long, winding roads. Thankfully it has a relatively large campground available through the National Parks website, though it should be noted that it says “coin operated showers” on the website but thankfully that wasn’t the case! Which is good because you only get power, no water hookup so showering in your RV isn’t really an option!

On our first day in the park we cycled over to Old Pinnacles Trail, which was a relatively easy 2.5(ish) mile cycle to the trailhead along the main road and when we were there in early May there weren’t many cars passing us on the road. They have some bike racks at the trailhead that you can attach your bike to for security, we also left our helmets on our bikes and they were there when we got back so I don’t know that theft is much of a concern.

The Old Pinnacles Trail to Balconies Cave Trail is about 5.3 miles round trip and doesn’t have a ton of shade. It is mostly flat though and offers some nice views of the old riverbed and the beginnings of the mountain peaks. After 2.6 miles you’ll come to a split where you can head straight on to the Balconies Cave or head up to the right to do the Balconies Cliff trail. Either way will lead you in a loop back to this point and you can completely skip the cave and just do a loop if you wish. But of course we had to do the cave!

view from within Balconies cave — Please note you will need a flashlight for this cave, you can use your phone but it’s much easier if you have a headlamp so you have both hands free.

There is quite a bit of scrambling over rocks and the footing is uneven so it’s easier to have two hands free to grab things if you get wobbly. As someone who suffers from claustrophobia, knowing that this wasn’t technically a cave as it’s mostly just fallen rocks stacked on each other did not help. But I managed to power through and make it through the cave. There are only a couple of sections you have to bend down for so I was okay. Your mileage may vary but the good thing is that it’s relatively short, I think we were through it in under 10 minutes, and you can completely skip it if you need to.

Once out the other side we continued on to do the Balconies Cliff trail which takes you up about 500ft of elevation to get some great views of the surrounding pinnacles that the park is named after. Tim is scared of heights and he did fine on this trail so if you also suffer from acrophobia just know you should be fine. We managed to spot a California Condor at this area! There were a lot of turkey vultures around but if you keep a keen eye out you can hopefully see a condor. The difference between this is that the turkey vultures have white all along their wings while the condors have it only close to their bodies. If you have binoculars they’ll come in really handy in spotting the differences!

Once all the way around the Balconies Cliff trail you sync back up with the Old Pinnacles Trail, like I mentioned above, and retrace your steps back to the Old Pinnacles trailhead. Overall this was a fun hike and I’d give it 4/5. Definitely bring sunscreen and water because there is no shade most of the trail. We were there in early May and it was already up into the 80’s during the day. Trekking poles for coming back down the back half would also be beneficial for your knees.

The next day we got up before sunrise and drove over to the Mossy Springs parking lot to start our hike. We were the only car there so we maybe didn’t need to worry quite so much about getting a spot. But getting a spot wasn’t the only reason we got up early. After a short walk, we entered another cave, this one called Bear Cave. Just after entering we saw a cute little frog which hopped on his way as we passed him. This cave wasn’t quite as adventurous as the other one but still had some cool features like an underground waterfall and some awesome carved steps. This is also where you’d go to get into the upper cave, but it’s only open one month of the year because of bat activity. It was closed while we were there.

After exiting the cave, we came to the reason we got up so early, to get to Bear Gulch reservoir before the sun was too high. If you get there early and the water is still, it makes a beautiful reflection of the mountains in the water. We kind of got to see it but the water had a little wind in it that stopped a perfect mirror.

We had a snack here and then continued on the rim trail, which you can actually take back to the parking lot in a loop trail through the cave. Like balconies cave there is also a path to bypass this and still get to the reservoir which is nice. Instead of turning back for the parking lot, we headed out on the high peaks trail. This is the highest rated hike in the whole park and before long it’s not hard to see why. The views even before you get up to the high peaks are stunning, which you can appreciate as you stop frequently to catch your breath from the elevation gain. This is a pretty steep trail with a lot of switchbacks as you approach the top. But if you make it up there, there is a bench that offers one of the best views I’ve ever had to eat lunch or a snack. There is also a pit toilet, but we didn’t use it because it smelled horrendous. I’m not sure how often it gets emptied but I’m going to guess not often.

Back on the trail we continued on for a short while along the ridge of the high peaks before we turned back. There is a point in the trail where you have to climb on a rock with some very low railings and Tim’s acrophobia couldn’t do it. So we turned around and walked back down, taking the rim trail back to the parking lot. Unfortunately this meant we didn’t get to go through Condor Gulch but I guess we have a reason to go back!

After driving back to our campsite I sat outside to read my book while Tim took a nap. While reading I sneezed and the person at the campsite next to us said “gezundheit” which I thought was very nice. Later that evening I was out walking Loki when he pulled towards another dog, I looked up to say hi to the owner and who should I see but Tim’s cousin Adrian! We met up with her last spring in South Dakota but had no idea she would be here, and guess where she was camped? Right next door! She was the kind person who said gezundheit! I typically don’t post about things we’re doing until we’ve already left the area (for safety) so she didn’t know we were gonna be there. And of all the campgrounds she just happened to get the one next to us. So we went over and hung out with her for a while and then said hi again in the morning before we had to head out, and she headed out to do a hike. But what serendipity!

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from Pinnacles National Park. We were mostly just going there to tick off a box but it really blew us both away with it’s understated beauty. We’d love to go back some day when we’re in the area and do a couple more of the hikes.

From Pinnacles we drove about 3 hours to Thousand Trails Yosemite Lakes for our three night stay to explore Yosemite National Park, check it out in the next blog post!