Pinnacles is at its peak right now
While Hollister and the northern parts of San Benito County
shivered under a blanket of overcast on Saturday, we loaded a quick
lunch and took an early-morning drive to Pinnacles National
Monument, where we met friends camped there for the weekend.
The plan called for a short walk, but it was such a gorgeous day
that the short walk just kept getting longer.
Pinnacles is at its peak right now
While Hollister and the northern parts of San Benito County shivered under a blanket of overcast on Saturday, we loaded a quick lunch and took an early-morning drive to Pinnacles National Monument, where we met friends camped there for the weekend.
The plan called for a short walk, but it was such a gorgeous day that the short walk just kept getting longer.
This is the right time to make a daytrip to the Pinnacles. In less than an hour’s time, people from Hollister can be on the trail in a place that’s unique.
Pinnacles was designated a national monument in 1908, making it one of the nation’s oldest parks. Its topography defines the place and gives it its official park status.
The landscape is punctuated with spires of rock of a type born in volcanoes called rhyolitic breccia. The rock in turn is painted in dayglo hues by the lichen that clings to it.
Pinnacles gets most of its visitors in the spring, and with good reason.
In summer the temperature is routinely torrid. Even on a mid-March day, the heat climbed to above 80. This time of year, wildflowers run riot and the green of plants contrasts brilliantly with the colored rocks.
Visitors looking for solitude will not find it at Pinnacles on a weekend this time of year. We were only out of earshot of others’ voices from time to time. But when we did find an empty spot on the trail, the silence was palpable.
We elected to take the Condor Gulch Trail to the High Peaks, returning via Moses Springs with a side trip for some through the monument’s largest cave complex.
As we climbed through dense chaparral, the first poppies appeared. In patches where enough soil and moisture clung to the rock, riots of shooting stars bloomed. The chaparral shone with the brilliant yellows of bush poppies.
After pausing for lunch in the scant shade of a digger pine, we continued along the High Peaks Trail. We would have had the whole of the Salinas Valley visible at our feet, but it was cloaked in fog while we basked under deep denim skies.
The trail is an engineering marvel, ascending and descending over rock walls in places with narrow steps whittled from stone. We paused in the shade to let a gaggle of Boy Scouts pass. As we looked up at that blue, blue sky, a condor drifted in over us. Then came another, and then a third.
As they circled around without seeming to expend any effort, one of our group commented that they did not seem very large. Then a common raven – a hawk-sized bird – drifted into the picture and the majesty of the California condor revealed itself.
A trip down to the Bear Gulch Reservoir was steep, but the well-maintained trail made it seem easy.
The reservoir itself is an improbable addition to the landscape. Set in the dryness of the Pinnacles, the juxtaposition of water and rock is stunning.
A quick descent into the caves had us briefly lost and in an up-close-and-personal encounter with bats that was enough to remind me that I have an unreasonable phobia about the tiny mammals.
As we neared the end of our walk, we passed Moses Springs, an area where water wells up out of the rock, feeding lush groves of ferns.
At the end of the day, our feet felt heavy, our stomachs empty and our hearts glad in a way that will sustain us for a long time to come.
Pinnacles may be reached via Highway 25, or off Highway 101 in the Salinas Valley. Entry fee is $5 per car, and parking lots in the park can fill up early on spring weekends so an early start is wise. The park’s Web site includes information about what wildflowers are in bloom, features a “condor cam” and includes a host of historic and scientific information. It can be found by directing a browser to http://www.nps.gov/pinn/index.htm.
