Pinnacles National Park is located in central California just south of Hollister and I had hear about it a few times for the large amount of unimpressive climbing that it offered. Being only two hours away from Oakland meant that we just had to make a weekend trip to check it out.
During the drive down we made a stop in Hollister to eat some tasty Mexican food and get ripped on on firewood. We paid $17 for a block of wood!
Being the Sunday afternoon of President's day weekend I though that there was no way that we would get a spot and that we would be left to drive all over the area looking for a spot of dirt to pay someone to sleep on. We got lucky and there was a spot at the campground, as well as we got free entrance into the park because of the holiday!
After setting up our camp Kimber and I checked out some of the nearby climbing and did a few quick routs. Nothing to brag about but fun none the less. The first was a single pitch trad route that included a large roof called, "Tourist Trap". Next I sent a quick bolted route on the same wall. It felt great to get on some rock again. The area is known for having loose rock, thus the helmets. Both climbs could be seen from the busy hiking trail and during the few evening minutes that we were climbing we could hear groups asking each other how we got the rope to the top. They obviously missed us using our 100ft long telescoping stick clip to hook the rope in at the top.
Due to fire restrictions we weren't allowed to burn our overly priced firewood and spent the night sharing one headlamp while we cooked our dutch oven dinner ingredients over a small propane stove in small backpacking pots. Entertainment was provided by what sounded to be two raccoon involved in a nasty throw down in a tree on the other side of our campground loop.
The next morning I took advantage of the many miles of trail in the park and was on the trail by 7:30am (no need to get a up too early). I headed up towards Bear Gulch Reservoir planning to go through the Bear Gulch Cave Trail but had to change course due to forgetting my headlamp. I did an out and back to the top of North Chalone Peak and then finished with a loop over the High Peaks trail. High Peaks had some pretty cool sections where there was narrow roughly cut stairs in the rock with old school railing preventing terminal falls. The views were nice. Not quite the green rough alpine mountains of Utah, Colorado or Montana but something new.
Running States
Distance: 13.8 miles
Time: 3 hours 8 minutes
Elevation gain: Approx 3,200ft
Kimber and I made an attempt to head up and do some more climbing after a lazy morning of breakfast and cleaning up camp but our plan was foiled due to no parking in the upper lot.
Pinnacles, in my opinion, doesn't really deserve the national park status. It is more in the category of state park. There was interesting rock features and some good hiking but the park was pretty small and not glorious, as most would describe a national park to be. The amount of climbing and the sub 2 hour drive from home might bring me back however. Time will tell.
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