Pinnacles NP — Gateway to the Inferno

Every trip I take, I learn something — more like a million somethings — about planning and executing these little weekend adventures. A few days at Pinnacles National Park was no different.

A little nugget of background info…

Whenever I travel, I absolutely 100% have “Experience FOMO”. I worry that I will miss something super cool in whatever place I am visiting and never, ever, ever, ever in my whole entire life have the opportunity to go back. Period. The. End. Maybe it’s because every trip out of Alaska requires a plane ride and a bazillion dollars. Or maybe it’s because the more I see and do, the more I learn and the more fun I have. Or maybe it’s because I am just a total weirdo and always have to be busy.

Or maybe it’s all of the above. I am going to go with that.

I don’t just love the travel part, I also love the research and planning that goes into any trip, whether it’s just to The End of the Road in Homer, down to Seattle for a quick weekend friend sesh, or on some crazy excursion to Europe or South America, or heck, maybe even Australia. As part of the planning process, I do all the usual Googly things — look for famous landmarks and historical sites, find all the foodie places to visit, see if there are any hikes or outdoorsy things to do, and of course research any and all geocaches that have to be found. That said, my to do list is typically realllllly long. And obviously I have to do it all. No exceptions.

In the few weeks I’ve had Tiny and Trudy, I’ve totes had the same Experience FOMO feelings. (Maybe I should call this Camping FOMO or Adventure FOMO?? Whatever.) Since Tiny and Trudy are still in California and I am still going to the Bay for work in three-week chunks, I obviously have take advantage of every weekend to go camp somewhere new.

Sounds great, right? Easy peasy. Wrong.

Sunset at the Pinnacles National Park Campground

I’ve learned that it is likely easier to get accepted into Harvard early admission than it is to reserve a camping spot ANYWHERE in the entire state of California. With the freedom to literally drive my bedroom wherever I want at any given time, I should be able to make a spontaneous decision about where I’d like to go. That’s part of the fun of camping, right?? Well, in California, you better know exactly five-months-to-the-day ahead of time where you’d like to “spontaneously” go camping because you have to be sitting at your computer at 7am on that five-months-in-advance day and hope and pray that you type faster than others and that your internet doesn’t break between 7:00 and 7:05 so you can register. It’s nuts. It’s like trying to register for the Boston Marathon AND get tickets to a Taylor Swift concert at the same time. For realz.

So, trying to be “spontaneous” and find a spot for the weekend really means “you get to go to whichever campground has an open spot and falls within a three hour drive”. I don’t love this, but I also can’t complain — I have Tiny, and ANYWHERE I get to go is better than no where.

OK, with all of that said, let’s move on to my weekend trip to Pinnacles National Park. Per usual, at the beginning of the week, I didn’t know where I was headed for the weekend. [Insert California Parks campground searching nonsense here.] Bodega Bay and Point Reyes, full. Russian River, Armstrong Woods, Healdsburg, Forestville, all the hippie areas in Sonoma and Mendocino Counties, nope. Monterey, Carmel, and Big Sur, not a chance. So when there was ONE remaining campsite available at Pinnacles National Park, I literally squealed!! Click. Reserved.

What I didn’t consider when booking, however, was the weather. As you probably know, “summer” in the Bay is fairly shitty — 55 - 65 degrees with some wind, fog, and oftentimes wildfire smoke. I mean, it’s usually warmer at home in Alaska than it is in the Bay from June through August. As a result, I haven’t been considering the weather when planning because it’s never been something I’ve ever had to take into consideration.

Anyhootles, as you now know, the Pinnacles was the only campground I could find, and I quickly learned why. It was downright nuclear when I arrived on Friday afternoon. The campground had a few big trees, but not enough to make any significant difference. We are talking 100 degrees in the shade, and like 115+ (my unscientific estimation) in the sun and gravel. What’s an Alaskan girl who hates heat and has a 1962 most definitely un-air conditioned Aloha trailer to do?! Get in her very well air conditioned Trudy the Truck and go for a drive into the National Park.

Prior to my visit, I knew that Pinnacles was the primary home of the endangered California Condor, but I didn’t know if that was the only reason why it was a National Park. Well, my friends, one of the things I love most about National Parks is that you get to learn all kinds of cool things. Pinnacles isn’t a National Park because of the condors, but rather they like to build their nests in the unique cliff and rock formations that are the reason for the National Park. The Pinnacles’ rugged and jagged geology is the result of our friends, tectonic plates.

Sixty million years or so ago, the North American Plate began subducting the heavier and denser Farallon Plate. Essentially, the North American Plate served as a snowplow on a conveyor belt — simultaneously, the Farallon Plate moved underneath the North American Plate while the North American Plate scraped off the top later of sediment that ultimately became the coastal Californian mountain ranges.

As the Farallon Plate continued to subduct underneath the North American Plate, it began to melt. The tension between the two plates caused cracks and fissures which served as weak spots in the Earth’s crust. Continued shakin’ and groovin’ released magma from the Earth’s core up to the surface — welcome to the party, volcanoes.

Fast forward a whole lotta years (like 40ish million) to “only” 23 million years ago, and the Pinnacles volcanic field formed near what is now Lancaster, California, down in SoCal. By then, the Farallon Plate had completely subducted, but the massive Pacific Plate was right behind it. Instead of subducting though, the Pacific Plate ground against the North American Plate. Eventually, a small chunk of the North American Plate broke off and hitched a ride north on the Pacific Plate. The fault line between the two plates is what we now know as the infamous San Andreas Fault — a slip-strike fault, meaning the two plates are slipping against each other. So, the Pinnacles volcanic field free-loaded its way 195 miles northwest on the Pacific Plate before running into the Pinnacles Fault and anchoring itself into its current home in Central Cali, just east of Soledad, a bit south of Hollister, and a touch north of King City. Over a bazillion years, erosion and weathering of the exposed rock created the uniquely steep and rocky cliff and boulders that are the Pinnacles today. Continued erosion, tectonic plate movement, and Mother Nature’s handiwork continued to form steep ravines, monoliths, colonnades, and rock pillars. Boulders fell onto small creek channels creating the talus caves — the Bear Gulch Cave and Balconies Cave.

So there you have it. That’s the geological history of Pinnacles National Park. As for its park status, it was named a National Monument by Teddy Roosevelt in 1908. President Obama up-leveled it to National Park status in 2013. Boom.

OK, what did I do while I was at Pinnacles? Not much because it was too bloody hot. After driving around on Friday evening, I enjoyed a hot, but lovely night at the campground. The raccoons came to visit the neighbors and I saw a cockroach the size of Nebraska. Once it was dark, I drove back to the park to do some stargazing. Holy smokes! So beautiful. I could see the Milky Way and also saw a bunch of shooting stars. It was also fun to play with different camera settings on my trusty iPhone to try to capture the night sky in all its glory. I found an app that has a manual setting where your can keep the shutter open for as long as you want, so I took like five-minute long photos. Of the 3948230984 I took, I’d say four turned out ok. Can’t win ‘em all, right??

On Saturday, my plan was to hike the High Peaks Loop, but that got abbreviated because it was approximately the temperature of the sun. I hiked up to the Rim Trail and took some photos and then turned around. Back at the parking lot, I ran into a Park Ranger who asked where I was headed, and I told him I was finished already. He said he was happy to hear that because there were a bunch of people in distress all over the park due to the heat. He told me that there was a family of four out hiking and both parents passed out from the heat, leaving the two kids to call for help. No bueno. As he was walking away, I said, “I promise I won’t be one of your casualties today.” Oops. Not what I meant. He laughed and said, “No casualties. Incidents.” After hiking, I drove into Hollister (because Starbucks) and then drove around farm country for a while waiting for it to cool off enough to be outside again. Back at camp that evening, I made a tasty chicken adobo thing with wild rice, chips and salsa, and had some raccoon friends for dinner guests. They are brazen little things. And when they wrestle, they sound like Quincy used to when he was attacking Mozzy. 😂 I headed out Sunday morning after a super great night’s sleep. Thank you, universe, for cooling down to the high 60s and low 70s.

All in all, it was a great weekend at Pinnacles National Park, albeit a furnace IRL. Was it my favorite National Park? No. Did I experience it enough to give it a fair evaluation? Also no. I am looking forward to going back to actually hike and explore the whole park. I think it would be super fun to hike between the west and east entrances. Also, I’d love to have a confirmed condor sighting.

Until then, off on the next adventure.