For the Halloween weekend Jules and I took a last minute trip to Pinnacles National Monument. We had been hearing good things about it for a while and yet neither of us had been before.
One of two entrances into the monument
Since we were car camping and not backpacking we brought a lot of niceties. Chairs, a cooler, and puffy jackets accompanied us on this trip. All of the campsites also have fire pits so we stayed up a little later than we normally would. I recommend you bring your own firewood as the stuff they had for sale didn’t include any kindling.
On Saturday we set up our tent and then headed to Bear Gulch Cave. It’s less than a mile from the trail head and ended up being the better of the two caves.
After the cave we headed up the ridge to the High Peaks which offers the best view in the area.
View from High Peaks
We were tempted to stay to watch the sunset but thought better of it and hiked down before it got dark. The next day we went to the other side of the monument and hiked a 9 mile loop that took us back up to the High Peaks before coming back down and out through the Balconies Caves. On the way up a tarantula crossed our path.
We apparently caught the end of the mating season so this was probably a male in search of a female. It was one of three tarantulas we saw during the weekend. The other two were crossing the road while we were driving.
From the ridge you get a pretty good view of the Balconies.
A view of the Balconies
It’s hard to make out from the picture, but there’s a canyon there at the bottom of which are the Balconies Caves which we explored on our way back.
After the caves was a short hike back to the Jeep and then back home. I think we’d both like to go back in the spring time after the rains to catch the wildflowers and water in the streams and flood plains.
One last picture for the road
