Just because your ego demands you create a National Park doesn't mean you should.
Pinnacles National Park used to be a National Monument and it should have stayed that way. It would also be OK as a state park. However, it's no Yosemite or Glacier. Hot Springs is the only National Park I've been to that's less worthy of the promotion. But, because Obama wanted to create a National Park, here we are.
I'd actually visited Pinnacles several years ago when it was a Monument. I was on my way from San Jose to L.A. I'd stopped in Paicines and I got a helada reception at a small cafe that apparently didn't get many white visitors. Then, when I got to the Monument I found out there was no parking available. Rather than waiting, I just continued on.
This time, I spent two afternoons there and I didn't even get the park highpoint. So, unfortunately, I need to go back to tag that.
The first day I hiked both of the caves. They aren't real caves, just slab caves. There's some stooping and ladder climbing involved but nothing that most can't handle.
The next day, IIRC, I did the High Peaks loop. Considering that the highest point - the one I still need to get - is just 3304' (North Chalone Peak), and High Peaks is 2639', I didn't take my diamox. As with years before, there was no parking up the road. So, I biked from the campground to the trailhead. That was OK because there wasn't much traffic, but I don't know if I would have done it otherwise. On the way back I briefly got turned around and took a climber's trail. Unfortunately, there were no climbers.
Around the apex of the loop the trail narrows and there's also a railing as the trail descends a rock face. However, that again is something that most should be able to handle. There's even a restroom along the route.
If you want to see condors - and you can tell them from other large raptors and have powerful binoculars or a powerful zoom lens - this is an OK park for you. If you're in the area and have a lead climber, doing one of the walls would be fun. Other than that, it's similar to what you can get in the Santa Monica Mountains. But, it is popular: the campground was full of scouts and others. So, others might find it more of an interesting place than I did.
On the way back to L.A. I took the wrong road. I'd meant to take Hwy 25 but instead took the much rougher Coalinga Road. It's all asphalt, but with lots of potholes and some dips that were full of water. I might have seen one or two other cars but I didn't see anyone in any of the many fields I went by. San Benito County either has low income despite large ranches, or doesn't spend much on roads. Eventually I got back to Coalinga where I picked up my travel companion for the return trip to L.A.: a Little Caesars pizza. I couldn't find a rotisserie chicken and, considering those are more juiced than an Olympic weightlifter, the pizza might have been even healthier.
P.S. "Coalinga" isn't an Indian or Spanish word, it's from "Coaling A". Very unimaginative.
