Not one of the National Parks you hear much about, but we thoroughly enjoyed this remote gem! And remote it is! (Don’t expect cell service for quite a wide perimeter around the park, or in it.). Be sure to visit both the East and the West sides of Pinnacles NP. Yes, it requires exiting the park to drive from one side to the other, since there’s no through road; but it is worth it. Views of the pinnacles and surrounding landscape are very different from the West to the East sides. On the East side, we had a blast hiking the Bear Gulch Cave trail - trekking through the cave was amazing! Condor Gulch Trail was tough - virtually all uphill and very little shade, BUT, we were rewarded by seeing two California condors glide and soar among the pinnacles; and that was incredible. On the West side, the Prewett Point Trail leads to a gorgeous overlook, complete with a shaded bench for resting at the peak. AND - we saw another condor here! Besides the condors, we spotted numerous lizards -all sizes- scuttling about, and a large population of spotted squirrels. A gorgeous Stellar’s Jay visited overhead for the full duration of our picnic lunch one day. The California Buckwheat is plentiful across the landscape, lending a gorgeous burnt red color to the hills surrounding the pinnacles. This is the 29th National Park we have visited, and increasingly, I find that I enjoy the lesser known, less crowded ones more than the hyped big name ones teeming with people. Pinnacles fit this bill perfectly.

We visited on a cool damp weekday in March shortly after noon and found both the small Old Pinnacles and small Bear Gulch parking lots full and parked in the only lot with spots available, Peaks View. There are maybe only a grand total of 100 spots to park in the entire east entrance side of the park. In any case, we were fortunate to stumble on a very nice out and back hike (about 5 miles round trip and 600 ft elevation gain) from there to see the pinnacles: Bench to Sycamore to Condor Gulch trails. We went as high as the overlook, which sits at the base of the pinnacles.

I read that Pinnacles is one of the least visited National Parks so I was surprised when we arrived and there was a line to get in. The line was worse when we left in the afternoon. It was my first visit although it's the closest park to where we live. I liked it and am sure we'll visit again. I was hoping to see a superbloom but I think we were a week or two too early. We saw some wildflowers here and there but not a lot. The reason why the park has a low number of visitors is that's it's a small park and parking is very limited. When there aren't any open spots, they hold cars at the entrance. When a car leaves, they let a car in.

I nice place to visit and learn about the rock formations and the cultures that existed there. There is a small but nice visitor center. There is an eight mile trail to take to view the pinnacles on the west side entrance.

HOT but a very cool place. We added this as an extra stop to our trip and weren’t sure after reading the reviews if it’d be worth it — but it surprised us. A beautiful place. We did the bear gulch cave trail loop and it was really cool and unique. For sure recommend a visit. We did not see a condor but they are around, found out the best time to see one is earlier in the morning. In August it’s hot, try to go early. I hope we make it back in a cooler season to explore more.