Pinnacles National Park Complete Guide: Exploring the Park's Caves + Trails on the East & West Side
Pinnacles National Park Complete Guide: Exploring the Park's Caves + Trails on the East & West Side
Pinnacles National Park is one of the country’s smallest and newest national parks. Because of that, it is not as visited as the other parks in California and many people miss out on all the fun adventures Pinnacles National Park has to offer. Pinnacles National Park has two caves you can explore, is home to dozens of California Condors, and has one of my favorite trails in California, known as the High Peaks. In this video, I wanted to introduce Pinnacles National Park and show what it is like to explore both the park’s east and west sides. Come explore the trails and caves with me and let me know what you think in the comments.
Read more at – https://californiathroughmylens.com/pinnacles-national-park-guide/
Chapters
—
0:00 – Intro
0:45 – East Side – Driving In
1:51 – Hiking to Bear Gulch Cave
3:53 – Bear Gulch Cave
7:55 – Bear Gulch Reservoir
9:08 – Hiking to the High Peaks
11:36 – High Peaks Trail
15:36 – Condor Gulch
17:05 – Quick Stops Around the Park
17:52 – Bacon Ranch Homestead
18:56 – West Side – Driving In
20:22 – Hiking to Balconies Cave
21:44 – Balconies Cliffs
23:54 – Balconies Cave
27:15 – Outro
Follow me:
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/californiathroughmylens
Instagram: http://instagram.com/californiathroughmylens
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/cathroughmylens
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/cathroughmylens
Monthly newsletter and four day welcome series on California’s best spots: https://bit.ly/2AWSVMK
Gear:
See all the gear I use here https://www.amazon.com/shop/californiathroughmylens
Print Shop:
https://californiathroughmylens.darkroom.tech/
Other Products/Services I Like (affiliate links):
Knockaround Sunglasses – https://shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=1319325&u=933127&m=86199&urllink=&afftrack=0
Music:
Epidemic Sound
https://www.epidemicsound.com/referral/usqgdp/
Want to mail something?
California Through My Lens
5198 Arlington Ave # 937
Riverside, CA 92504
Great little place, If you can add it with a trip on Naciemento Road, from coast to Hunter Liggot to Park. East Side, don’t bother with west.
This is an excellent video on this park. I stumbled across this park by accident. I am planning on visiting this park in 2024. Thanks for the insight.
Wondering if you can bring a dog with you there? I’m assuming not because it’s a national park?
where’s pops?
Solid footage
Excellent bud on the park! A recommendation. Any time you need a flashlight to explore, take minimum of two! They do fail for unexplained reasons. My Son and I visited Lava beds National Monument in Northern California. We took three flashlight and one went out! New batteries!! You have never seen so dark!! They rangers don’t know where your going and they don’t go out searching for lost souls. You will become a skeleton! Never, never rely on just one flashlight anywhere! On another note, that $5 Walmart flash did wonders!! Really lit up the scenes!!
I went there last year (Nov 2021) and didn’t like the park unfortunately. It was just too hot and dry and there was a shitload of people. There were mosquitoes around the lake and I thought the entrance fee was too much. But good to see the other trails on this video nevertheless.
Love your videos my dude. Can’t wait to visit this park
What a beautiful park ❤
I see, I have to visit during weekdays. It is really annoying to me when there are tons of people around.
is pinnacle trail harder to complete compared with mission peak summit in fremont?
Planning to go in a month from now. Hope the caves are open with lots of water 🙂
There used to be a campground on the West side of Pinnacles. Fantastic hiking. Tried to go through Balcony Cave without a flashlight, it goes total black. You really do need a light.
Def gonna check this out..thanks for sharing!
Is this place located in a seismic zone?
And considering the name "Bear Gulch" — are brown bears ever sighted on the trails? It would be terrible to encounter one.
We’ve camped & hiked there a few times. We second what others have said here–you’ve really thought through what visitors need to know. So many first person accounts are so self-indulgent, often showing their family instead of what our family needs to know. Meaning that with your videos it’s always 90% plus useful content–no fat, no gristle. And while your cinematographer skills are good, you focus on showing us what we can see rather than showing off those skills with artsy shots. Thanks!
Bummer you didn’t do Juniper Canyon up to High Peaks and down to the caves-reservoir and back up again, the best time is in April when the wildflowers show off it’s beauty. One of my favorite trails from parking at the west entrance 🤘🏼
Love from Mississauga, Ontario, Canada! We have been watching your videos on our TV screen and did not know how to subscribe to your channel there. So today we are doing it on our laptop out of guilt. We like your videos and keep visiting places vicariously.
Btw, I, wife would never venture into these caves and my husband said he won’t too.
My son’s boy scout troop is up there this weekend. 😊
How long of a hike do you think it’ll take if you don’t do the high peaks and just head back to the parking lot?
Thank you for this very detailed video
Great video! Thank you.
Excellent presentation! Thank You
Fantastic video! I’m going with my family next week and I’m feeling really confident and clear about the trails in the park! Thank you for the thorough exploration of Pinnacles!
Pass of the cave but just an amazing park! Thanks for the tour!
Just want to spread this song GREAT for any HIKER
Adam Fink LET’S GO ON A HIKE
Idk how but I’ve seen so many of your videos and was never subscribed 🤦🏽
I’m always like “this video looks great already” then “oh it’s him!” Love the vids.
Ranking all the National Parks, this one is dead last. Joshua Tree is very underwhelming as well, but Pinnacles is more like an average state park or really nice county park
Man I miss living in hollister
Nice video me and my wife love to see your videos with your pops, question San Andres fall pass trhu that cavern you show in the video?
I like your video of Pinnacles. I watch your videos with my Daddy
GRL – Age 5.
Great video! I’ve hiked all of the Pinnacles trails during all seasons. My favorite season is spring: When you hike the Moses Spring Trail, you can see water cascade over some rocks. You can cool off right there if you want to! One year on the way to the High Peaks I was walking up the steps to the reservoir. I heard somebody play a didgeridoo in that short cave section. So eerie and so weird! Yes, these trails make my top 10! Thanks, Josh!
It’s a great video 👍❤
The raccoons in the campground are NOT scared of people. Learned that the hard way.
This was very informative!
Thank you for another awesome National Park hike! I always look for your videos before visiting another NP and this one did not disappoint! My boyfriend and I are hiking Pinnacles NP in April 2025 as well as Saguaro NP. I believe that will 45 National Parks that we would have hiked at 72 years old for the both of us. Have you hiked all the National Parks in US already?
Talus caves, not tallest caves.
I love this park so much!!
Did they rename the Condor Gulch Parking Area to something else? Looking at the current map for Pinnacles and can’t find that parking area on the map. Thanks 🙂
There’s two entrances to Pinnacles , but they are not connected. One is off the 25 in San Benito County south of Hollister. The other is in Solidad, California in Monterey county.
This is a great video. Good job. I’ve been there once back in the early 80’s and been planning to go back. This video helps a ton. Btw, I’ve been watching most of your travel videos.
I grew up in Hollister (east park entrance) and would always drive the country roads surrounding the park with my mom. Thanks for highlighting our beautiful little area ❤️
Thank you, for a brilliant video. It is on my list of places to vist and after seeing your video it should go to the top of the list.
We will be there mid June, and want to go in the afternoon after whale watching in Montery. Is that possible for parking and heat reasons??
I regret passing it 😩
I love hiking here. 😊 Thanks for showing the high peaks trail. I would have loved when I was younger but not now. 😳😁
At 2:30, that’s Moses Spring parking area, not Bear Gulch parking. Awesome hiking video. Thanks!
I’ve been a volunteer in Pinnacles for 13 years, the first 10 working on the condor crew. This is the best video I’ve seen made by a visitor. The hit all the high points, gave excellent information, and you video skills are wonderful! Thanks for this.
Just visited Pinnacles. Weekend in January and it was quite busy. The big issue I found is the lack of infrastructure/organization. The main trail near bear gultch has a parking lot, it is a. decent size, but is about 2.5 miles from the visitors center with no other real parking near. They had the road to the only 2 lots blocked and had to use the overflow parking. A shuttle would have been a huge help to many visitors. Had to tack on 5 miles to the 6 miles bear gultch loop trail. Trail itself was gorgeous and unique, well worth it. But keep in mind if you are not in peak shape. 11 miles was a lot even for me and my friends who are all in solid shape.
Great job!
Thanks!