Babbling Brooke Gazette: Welcome to the Newest National Park!

You can see I almost didn't make it to the sign before the camera clicked! I have 10 seconds to run to my position and I had a lot of scrambling on the way for this one! My hair is fluffed out because I was whirling around when the photo snapped!

Pinnacles National Park

Originally established as a National Monument in 1908 by President Theodore Roosevelt, it was recreated into a National Park in 2013 under Barack Obama.

What's the difference between a national monument and park, you ask?

The primary difference lies in the reason for preserving the land: national parks are protected due to their scenic, inspirational, education, and recreational value. National parks have objects of historical, cultural, educational, and recreational value.

National monuments have objects of historical, cultural, and/or scientific interest, so their content is varied. For example, national monuments protect wilderness areas (such as Muir Woods), fossil sites, military forts, ruins, and buildings (such as Ford's Theatre where President Lincoln was assassinated).

The second distinction between the two is that the National Parks Service oversees all National Parks while there are a number of agencies that oversee the different National Monuments. It's complicated!

One last note on the two: Congress specified in the 1970 General Authorities Act and the 1978 Redwood Act that all units of the National Park System are to be treated on equal status, regardless of title.

Only the east side of the park has camping capability so obviously that's where we headed. It is a narrow, windy road into the park, but the west side road is even worse and they recommend that you do NOT take an RV on that road.

Our first full day in the park, we met up with our friends from Twentynine Palms RV Resort, John and Pat, and embarked on the Old Pinnacles Trail to Balconies Cave hiking trail. This is a moderate 5.3 mile (round trip) trail that requires very little scrambling through talus passages. We hiked all the way to the cave but didn't go very far into the cave ... Gary doesn't do caves!

Here I am with Pat on one of the 2-3 bridges on the trail.

Here's Gary with John on the bridge.

The park's namesakes (pinnacles) are the eroded leftovers of the western half of an extinct volcano that has moved 150 miles from its original location on the San Andreas Fault, embedded in a portion of the California Pacific Coast Ranges. The park is divided by rock formation into East and West Divisions, connected by the hiking trails and it may take about 2-3 hours to hike through to the other side. There is no through road that connects the east and west sides of the park, and it is about a 1-1/2 to 2 hour drive from one side to the other. The east side features shade and water, and the west side has the high walls known for their rock climbing.

The pictures below were taken along the Old Pinnacles Trail (located on the east side of the park) on our way to Balconies Cave. Our journey took us through chaparral, oak woodlands, and canyon bottoms. There are rare talus caves and towering rock spires teeming with life: Prairie and Peregrine falcons, Golden eagles, and the California Condor. Unfortunately, we cannot claim a condor sighting on our checklist.

You can see that molten rock look in these pictures below.

And then there's this green rock that was scattered about the trail and hillsides

We saw a lot of these trees ...

... with these pods all over them.

And here's a close-up on the ground, with the outer covering peeled off.

Water was still flowing in the creek bed!

Jagged rock cliffs everywhere, but more dramatic on the west side of the park.

Here you can see our trail.

And more stunning scenery at this scenic national park.

Gary and I off the side of the trail.

The spring is the best time of year at this park as the summer months are EXTREMELY hot. The campground does have a pool which is teeming with its own form of wildlife in the hot summer months.

John and Pat

Gary on the trail.

The three amigos--Pat in front, John on the left, and Gary on the right.

Climbing up through a talus passage.

A magnificent rock spire.

Scrambling over the talus rocks with just a little bit of water there.

While condors and magnificent rock spires and rock climbing draw many visitors to Pinnacles, that is not all there is to see in this newest national park. There are two systems of talus caves to explore. These caves are formed by massive boulders wedged in ravines and widened by water and erosion. Rocks the size of houses will hang steadily overhead when you make your way through a cool, dark environment that provides a home for Townsend big-eared bats and red-legged frogs, among others. However, since we did not enter the cave beyond the first 10 feet, the bats only had themselves to contend with at the time.

Here we are at Balconies Cave entrance.

Gary, looking into the cave.

That's John on the right side of the rock at the cave entrance.

Here I am at the cave entrance and if you look closely (very closely) to my left at the V in the rock (right below the gate sign) you can see Gary and Pat (John is further up into the cave taking our photo). This cave actually goes through to the west side of the park. But, at some point in the cave you have to almost crawl because you lose your cave height. For those who want to keep hiking to the other side of the park but not use the cave there is a trail that circumvents the cave and gets you to the other side--Balconies Cave Loop.