Pinnacles National Park

Today we set off from Bakersfield and headed to Morgan Hill - a town we lived in many years ago.  Before we arrived, we ventured over to Pinnacles National Park.  It's the 2nd newest national park in the USA.  The most recent is now The St. Louis Arch in St. Louis, Missouri, which gained national park status just last month!  Pinnacles, when we were living here was listed as Pinnacles National Monument.  The local scout troop would go camping over in Pinnacles since it's only 60 minutes away by vehicle just past Gilroy over by San Benito.

Unfortunately, Scott was most anxious to get to Morgan Hill so we only stayed at the park a short period of time and didn't get the change to take many photos, but I can say they have outstanding camping.  They have a large assortment of sites and even 2 pull-thru spots for the larger rigs like ours.

The best way to access the park is through the East Entrance off Hwy 25 and 146 at 5000 Hwy 146, Paicines, CA 95042.  Phone is (831) 389-4486.  The Visitors Center is just 1.9 miles off the road and the staff is extremely friendly and helpful and open currently form 9:30 am - 5:00 pm.  At Pinnacles there is large variety of trails, caves, climbing and bird watching - especially condors.  Pinnacles also has a great junior ranger program for the kids, too!  The Pinnacles National Park Foundation takes care of financing the junior ranger program

Pinnacles National Park is filled with jagged rock spires and boulder-topped canyons that tell stories of a geological past marked by violent volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.  Today, Pinnacle's rock formations, chaparral-covered hills, and oak woodlands are home to a diverse range of plant and animal species, including the endangered California condor.  The park is quite small in comparison to other parks - about 3 miles long but it is filled with many trails heads: Bear Gulch, Old Pinnacles Trailhead, Bench Trail, Balconies Cave Trail and the Chaparral Trail.  While I didn't take these photos, here are a few from the National Park Service of their park. 

Photo: Chuck's Adventures

Lower Beaver Gulch
Photo: US National Parks

Photo: US National Parks

California Condor
Photo: US National Parks

Since this park is so small, I think it would make for a fun weekend get-away and you would easily be able to see nearly all the park in a couple of days.  Here's the map of the park with the associated hikes:

I alway forgot to mention that there were California poppies dotting the side of the road.

California Poppies
Photo: Trip Savvy

And the most rewarding park of the harrowing drive over to Pinnacle via I-5 was seeing a brand new calf inside a fence just off the side of the road with it's mother still licking the sack of the wet baby.  It couldn't have been more than a 20 minute calf.  So precious!  I wished I could have stopped to photograph it but with a 40' long RV and a very narrow 2-lane road, it wasn't safe to do so.