The High Peaks - Pinnacles National Park

 HIGH PEAKS TRAIL LOOP 

PINNACLES NATIONAL PARK

DECEMBER 7, 2020

The High Peak Trail - is accessible both from the East and West entrance of the park, there is no road that will connect the two entrances. At the west side gate, the Chaparral parking area is where the trail head a launching pad to the Juniper trail, the main trail that will converge with the Tunnel trail that leads hiker up to the High Peaks.  It's a series of switchback going up and with more than 2000 feet of elevation gain. It's an arduous hike but it's all worth the effort, beautiful scenery and challenging uphill. During the trek, I have taken more than 200 photos that includes the condors flying overhead, plants and flowers and some other wild animals. 

This year our climb started at the trail head on the junction of Bench Trail and Sycamore, it's called the Manzanita parking lot.  At the junction near the trailhead is the Old Pinnacle trail, we follow that trail going up north and then we turned into the Blue Oak trail, an uphill battle all the way to the summit. Series of switchback going up into this beautiful trail, your body will start acclimating quickly to the elevation change and cold mountain breeze, I'm gasping for air as I keep on going up, only stopping by to take a breather and to take pictures of the scenic views. 

The view of the Old Pinnacle canyon trail that loop to the west side entrance of the park. No road access that will connect the two entrances.

The Moon Over At The Blue Oak Trail

The moon appeared on the west side of the mountain and it appeared so near that it's blended with the trees and rocks. The moon became one of the focal point of our climbs.

The Vistas

BLUE OAK (quercos douglasii)  is named for the bluish cast of the leaves; a stand of blue oak trees from a distance has a “cool,” relaxing blue-grey tinge, which is a welcome sight in the hot summer sun of the California foothills.  Blue oak is endemic to California. It inhabits the foothills surrounding the Great Central Valley, essentially encircling it. This tree is very important to the native Americans during the days, it's a main source of food for the tribes, they crushed the acorn and make it into a flour. 

The trail puts up plenty of opportunity for photographs, rock formations can be seen from the distance, the valley that encompasses the area of Pinnacles and the surrounding mountains of San Benito and Kings county. 

Once you reach the summit of the first mountain, a view of the surrounding is just awesome. At the top the trail level into a more bearable uphill and some of it are flat and easy going. We have at this point about 1 mile and a half to the High Peak. 

Up on the horizon the west side of the park that can be seen from the summit of the Blue Oak trail, it's an open beautiful scenery at this point.

The Condors Gulch

The high country is where you can see the big bird flying and hovering on the rock outcroppings. Majestic indeed the bird has a wing span of over 10 feet.

"Since 1992, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) began reintroducing captive-bred condors to the wild, the USFWS, and its public and private partners have grown the population to more than 440 birds.

Currently, there are about 160 California condors flying free in Central and Southern California, nearly 80 in Arizona and Utah, and more than 30 in Baja, Mexico. By 2008, the Recovery Program reached an important milestone: for the first time since the program began, more California condors were flying free in the wild than in captivity." USFWS - Pacific Southwest

The High Peak is in the heart of the Pinnacle National Park the views are tremendous, as we move upward we get excited looking through those odd looking rocks and crevice's along the way.

We're very fortunate to witness the condors mating dance as they perched on the rocks one of them males spreading his wings to impress the female condor.

Using the full lengths of my Sony RX10 IV zoom lens at 600mm able to shoot the big birds far from the horizon. The birds are actively buzzing at the top and then two pairs of birds landed in the high rocks and then one of them spreading it's wings and showing it off to the partner.

THE HIGH PEAKS TRAIL:  The photographs speaks for themselves as were moving upward to 2600 feet. We reached another junction and hike a little further by another 500 feet up. We decided to rest up and have our lunch, enjoying the view of the surrounding. Magical as you look into the pinnacles of rock of the main area of High Peak.

Having lunch at the top of the High Peak? It's priceless!!!

Bon Appétit

After the sumptuous lunch we descended back to the trail and going towards the Jawbone area, this side of the High Peak the views reminds me of Yosemite's 4 Mile trail. Although the high peak is not as high as the one in Yosemite, the High Peak has its own magnificent aura of natures wonders.

The following are some of the photos I have taken from the famous trail.

Such a wonderful hike, other than small scratches we did well and safely got back down the mountain. The hike supposedly a 6.5 miles loop, but we ended up doing 9 miles with all the detours to other trails of the park. Nevertheless by doing so we we're able to witness the big birds as well as other wild animals in the area. My partner nephew Sam have enjoyed this wonderful hike immensely, this is one of the adventures I'm sure that he will remember the most and gives him more inspirations to do hiking.

Take your time while hiking this and take a lot of pictures, I cant wait to see this place in spring time, I could only imagine the greeneries and the profusion of flowers along the trail.

The place starting from the hills of Coalinga all the way to the park would be like a small Ireland with all the green pastures that will last from late January to June. 

One thing I'm very impressed by, there's no trash along the trails, I'm so glad that hikers is getting into the principles of Leave no Trace. I hope that some other places especially our county parks and the city parks that people that uses them will exercise the basis of cleanliness and a trash free environment.

My hat's off to the staffs, rangers, and crews of the National Park they do a wonderful job in maintaining and preserving our natural wonders all across this great land. 

May We Always Be