Pinnacles National
Monument is a very popular place to go hiking. It's about 90 minutes south
of San Jose. I went there recently to decompress from final exams from this past
Winter quarter. I needed it, too. I went with Yunhua, a friend from school, and
her husband. We hiked approximately eight miles through the wst side of the park,
which was surprisingly low on traffic until the mid afternoon.
The park contains the remains of an ancient volcano, which originated 195 miles
south. The constant movement along the San Andreas Fault literally moved this
portion of the volcano to its current location.
There were lots of wildflowers along the trails, so I took a lot of pictures.
There's one section for each set of trail areas that we went on, including one
just for the flower pictures. The flower pictures are larger and will take longer
to download.
Balconies
Trail - This trail starts from the Chaparral parking lot on the west side
of the park, and goes along a creek. We took the Balconies Caves Trail through
the caves and took the Balconies Cliff Trail back to the trailhead.
Juniper
Canyon Trail - This trail starts from the same parking lot, but goes southeast
and ascends into the High Peaks section, where the largest of the rock formations
are located.
High Peaks Trail - This is a loop trail at
the top of the rock formations, which requires some tricky walking and going up
stairs that were cut into the rock. It's 1.9 miles long and gives some fantastic
views.
Flowers - Pictures of the various wildflowers
found along the trails