Rating the national parks - Pinnacles
Definitely recommend. We spent a whole day there hiking and enjoyed it thoroughly. The High Peaks area is definitely the highlight and has great views to the east and west - on a clear day you can see the Pacific. Two highlights for me - scrambling down through the caves, which are actually just rock falls of huge boulders into narrow canyons, and seeing condors. We were fortunate enough to have several swoop close over our heads and then watch a bunch of them just riding the thermals.
There's really not much reason to hike any of the other areas of the park - the trails are pretty flat and the scenery doesn't change.
The campground was well laid out, had clean facilities and hot showers, and there was a cool little nature center.
BTW it's fairly easy to overnight in the national parks without paying a dime or making a reservation. The campground almost always has spots that are reserved but the people don't show up, so if you roll in about 9:30 or 10 pm and take one of those you're almost always good. The other option - if you're self-contained and don't need a place to pitch a tent - is parking in one of the lots for the visitor's center or a trailhead or something. Again, show up well after dark and the rangers are all gone and I've never had a problem.
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Posted: 04/11/2022 at 09:16AM