April 2018

Pinnacles is the newest National Park, established under President Obama in 2013. Since I had an outdated list of parks this one was not even on my radar screen but I noticed it on the map and had to check it out since it was only an hour away from where we were staying in Monterey. We arrived in the late morning, on the east side of the park, and were directed to park at the Pinnacles Visitor Center since the parking lot at Bear Gulch, our final destination, was full. We grabbed our picnic lunch and waited about 10 minutes for the next shuttle to take us up.

We found a great picnic area and ate our lunch. Then I set off to hike the 2.2 mile Bear Gulch Cave and Rim Trail loop. Meanwhile Richard went to the raptors show at the Bear Gulch Visitor Center and waited for me to return. The hike was fantastic with part of it winding through a cave where are no lights so you need to have your own flashlight to navigate through. Fortunately I knew that and had a flashlight along. There were some tight squeezes through the rocks and a couple of times when I was not sure if I was still on the path but I made it!

 

Part of the cave was closed off because it was full of bats, which was all right with me :). There is another entrance to the park on the West side and another cave to explore but no way to cut across the park and no time to go all the way around. As I always say…something for next time.