Pinnacles National Park.
hour or two to park. That strongly suggests opting for a Monday-Friday visit.
Pinnacles National Park, California We’re going to attempt to explain how and why a California national park could possibly wind up on our loneliest list. To begin, boasting a population of nearly 40 million, the state is home to an enormous number of potential visitors. And, of its eight national parks, four entertain more than a million visitors each year. Yosemite leads the list with 4 million, Joshua Tree brings in 3.27 million, followed by Death Valley and Sequoia/Kings Canyon each drawing about 1.2 million visitors annually. And then we have Pinnacles—struggling to attract 200,000 visitors a year. How could this be, we wondered, with the park situated just 75 miles south of San Jose and well within a two-hour drive of the greater Bay Area? The answer is somewhat involved. The first thing is extreme weather. Temperatures routinely hit triple digits from May to October, making Pinnacles a rather uncomfortable place to be during the summer vacation season. Access is another issue. There are two entrances to the park, east and west, and there’s no connecting road between the two. Once visitors from the Bay Area emerge from the 101 Freeway near Gilroy to head southeast to the eastern entrance, they face an hour-long drive along a clunky, winding two-lane road. Visitors seeking the western entrance must exit the 101 at Soledad and creep 14 miles along a narrow one-lane road to reach the park.
Now for the good part. While Pinnacles became a national monument way back in 1908, it wasn’t designated a national park until President Obama signed legislation in 2013. National status resulted almost immediately in a big increase in visitation and with that has come growing recognition of the park’s many remarkable features. Rising from the Gabilan Mountain Range, Pinnacles’ unique domed rock formations, cliffs, spires, caves, and canyons are the result of ancient volcanic activity traced to roughly 23 million years ago. These amazing geological features are best taken in on hikes along the 6.7-mile High Peaks Trail or the less demanding 2.2-mile Moses Spring to Rim Loop Trail. Other trails lead to Balconies and Bear Gulch Caves, the latter serving as home to a colony of Townsend’s big-eared bats. Flashlights are needed to visit these caves. Pinnacles also is well known to bird watchers (and the scientificcommunity)asthereleaseandmanagement site for the critically endangered California condor. Check with rangers for specific times and locations that are best to catch a glimpse of these enormous birds that sport a wingspread of more than nine feet. Pinnacles Campground offers tent and group camping, along with some partially serviced RV sites, all requiring advance registration.
Then there’s a parking problem. A big one. So scarce are spots that weekend visitors often have to wait an
www.nps.gov/pinn | 831-389-4486
LONELIEST NATIONAL PARKS
COAST TO COAST MAGAZINE FALL 2024 | 26
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