High-Summer in Pinnacles

July 26th, 2015.  Sunday.  Kala started planning a little 3 hour hike in the Pinnacles National Monument.  This is probably our 10th trip to this Monument, an hour from home, and this time around we explored the Lower-Bear-Gulch-Caves.  We had never been here before, and this time, it was Gayathri's first visit to the National Park.  Boy!  It turned out to be a wonderful day in our life so far -- hot and dry, but still beautiful.  After slathering sun-screen all over us, we were ready for adventure.

 Kala and Gayathri fed Toby.  Now that the ferocious cat is on guard, we felt it was safe to venture out and drive to Pinnacles.  Kala packed some sandwiches.  We loaded our individual back-packs with water bottles, apples, and protein bars.  And we were ready to rock!

We had the typical argument about the eastern entrance or the western entrance to the part.  The western entrance is brand new and not many people know about the facilities available to visitors. There is also plenty of parking. The eastern entrance is well known and is documented in every tour guide and map. The result?  Makes for a very crowded parking lot.  But today, the eastern entrance was pretty empty and it was almost as if we were the only visitors to the park!

Now, about the park itself.  The Pinnacles Park has a unique look that was formed due to volcanic activity almost 23 million years ago.  The park is formed of granite rocks whose cousins can be found in Southern California and Baja California in Mexico.  It is as if a giant bird picked up these rocks carried them hundreds of miles north and dropped them where they are!  Not difficult to imagine given that the park is home to a family of California Condors!

On arrival, we were fortunate to find out that the Lower Bear Gulch caves were open.  You can see the entrance to the caves to on the left.  The caves are home to the protected Townsend large-ear bats.  The last time we were here were in March with Haree when we explored the upper caves. This time, the upper caves were locked away from visitors.  The next time they will be open would be sometime in October for a couple of weeks when the bats with their newly hatched young would be out gorging themselves before the annual hibernation.


To explore the caves you would need a flashlight.  Fortunately we were well prepared for the adventure.  There are 2 paths into and out of the caves.  We took the path more travelled.  The less-travelled path was wet, slippery, and in place you had to get on your bellies and crawl.  If Haree was here, he would have mocked our efforts!

We were warned about wild-life before we left on our hike.  Fortunately for us, we did not run into any of the rattlers.  We did see a water snake, but more on that later.

We needed both hands and in a couple of places we had to get down on our knees and crawl like babies to go under the rocks.  The caves were formed by water over the eons.  We started out at around 600 feet over sea level and steadily ascended to 1,900 feet within the cave system.  There is a reservoir at the top and the overflow carved a path thru the rocks creating the caves.  Even though we are in the worst drought in over a 100 years, we were able to hear the water dripping thru the caves -- imagine the water flowing here in full force!.
 Once we were out of the caves we had to reach the top.  It was climb of over 200 feet over some steps that have been carved out of the rock face.  In places the steps were eroded and were less than 12" across.  It made for a difficult climb, especially for someone like me who is afraid of heights.  On the left is a sheer drop of over 200 feet!  I was afraid to look, so no pictures!

 Once we reached the top, the view of the reservoir was spectacular!  The water level since March had dropped over 6'.  The water itself was green and slimy.  It is home to some local fish and swimming near us was a water snake -- 24" long, 1/2" thick. According to the park literature it was non-poisonous and lives off the frogs and the insects that calls the park home.  Talking of insects, the park is supposedly home to more varieties of bees that you can count!

All in all a wonderful day.   

The hike we took was called "medium" hike of 5 miles.  It tooks us nearly 4 hours to cover these 5 miles.  You climbed from about 600' to a little over 2,000 feet.  There were a couple of places where you had to go down on your knees and crawl.  Otherwise it was a pretty easy walk.  The day was hot -- when we arrived it was 89 degrees F and when we left, the temperature had climbed to 102.  One definitely needed to take water!