A (Mis)adventure in Pinnacles National Park

Yesterday, I went hiking in Pinnacles National Park with a few friends. It was amazing (and somewhat harrowing) experience. I managed to take quite a few pictures during our hike, so I thought I'd share them, along with some details of our hike.

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We entered Pinnacles through the West Entrance and parked at the Chaparral Trailhead. Our plan was to go along the southern trail past the High Peaks to Bear Gulch Reservoir and loop through the Bear Gulch Cave Trail. Then we would head northeast up to the Old Pinnacles Trailhead, then head back along the northern trail, go through the Balconies Caves Trail and return the Chaparral trailhead.

We set off from Chaparral at 12:30 PM. Thinks went pretty smoothly at this stage of the trip. The trail was pretty steep, but we managed to get to Bear Gulch Reservoir quite easily. The views from the High Peaks were phenomenal.

Mountains 1

Mountains 2

Mountains 3

At the top of the mountain, we saw a pair of California Condors. This is the only picture in which I managed to capture both of them. They are very fast fliers.

Condors 1

Here's one with one of them in the center of the frame.

Condors 2

More pictures from the peak.

Peak 1

Peak 2

As we were coming down from the peak, we saw some interesting rock formations. Such as this very phallic rock.

That's a Penis

At the base of the peak, there were quite a few streams, some of them cutting across the trail. Though it was sunny that day, it had rained the week before, so there was a lot of water flowing down paths that were previously dry.

Water 1

Water 2

Water 3

Little did we know that this water would pose quite a few problems for us later on the hike. At the fork in the trail, we headed south and entered Bear Gulch Cave from the north. However, we discovered that the cave trail was flooded with water up to almost knee-level. So there was nothing to do but take off our shoes, roll up our pants, and wade through the ice-cold water. I don't have any photos from this part of the trip because I was too focused on getting through it. Once we got through the caves, we cleaned and dried off our feet, put our shoes back on, and continued on. We cut back north across the cave bypass and headed northeast along Bear Gulch. On this leg of the trip, we saw some pretty impressive canyons.

Canyon 1

Canyon 2

Canyon 3

We got to the eastern side of the part and started to loop around north through the Old Pinnacles Trailhead. There was a lot more water in this section.

Water 4

Water 5

Water 6

Water 7

There was also one section that was surprisingly flat and dry.

Flat and Dry

At this point, the sun was starting to set, so we wanted to get back to the western trailhead quickly. We didn't expect this leg of the journey to be very difficult, since the trail was relatively level. Unfortunately, that was far from the case. The trail was supposed to follow along the edge of the West Fork Chalone Creek. But because of the earlier rain, the creek had changed its course and meandered across the path itself. As a result, several points on the path were obstructed, and we were forced to cross knee-deep running water just like in Bear Gulch Cave. At the first few crossings, we managed to make our way across without setting foot in the water by way of stepping stones or logs placed across the stream. But eventually, we had no recourse but to take off our shoes and ford the river. By the time we got to Balconies, it was getting dark and most of us had wet feet.

The Balconies Cave was closed due to flooding, so we had to take the slightly longer bypass over the mountains. But at this point, we had another problem: one member of our group got a cramp in both of his legs and found it difficult to continue walking. The constant wading across streams had exacerbated the problem. We tried going at a slower pace for a while, but the sun had set and it was quickly getting colder. And further walking only seemed to exacerbate his cramp. But fortunately, we found a solution. If he leaned on one of the other hikers for support, the cramping wasn't as severe. With one person walking ahead to spot for obstacles, we were finally able to make good time through the mountains.

When we finally got to the Chaparral Trailhead, it was past 8 PM, the park's closing time. We were cold, tired, and hungry. So we got into our cars and quickly drove back to San Jose, where we ate a huge meal to celebrate surviving Pinnacles National Park.