Pinnacles NP | Only here are the peaks

The natural landscape of California can be said to be open, but the closest national park to the Bay Area is not Yosemite with the per capita back garden, but this little-known Shifeng National Park, which was upgraded from a national monument in 2013. Park (Pinnacles NP).

Here, the ancient volcanic creation has ceased, and the remnants left are towering and beautiful pinnacles. People travel through jungles and canyons in search of eerie caves and endangered vultures awaiting an unexpected encounter.

(There are so many stunning scenery on the Great Ring Road, why can this very unpopular national park win the first national park alone strategy? Because it is really small and very easy to write...)

Starting from Berkeley, through the urban agglomeration of Silicon Valley, you are far from the hustle and bustle of the Bay Area. As the car entered the Salinas Valley , a major agricultural and livestock area in California, the smell of cow dung began to waft into the car. In just two hours, you can reach Pinnacles NP on the edge of the valley.

Yes, Americans are still so straightforward in naming places. This park is used to see Shifeng. Pinnacles refers to steep hills. In addition to Americans, British navigators also used this word to name a string of sharp rock islands in the East China Sea. Later, the Japanese translated it as "Senkaku". Alright, let's stop this digression...

Pinnacles National Park is the product of the San Andres Fault, an active fault zone that is a source of danger to the Bay Area, where ancient volcanic activity formed volcanic rocks that were then squeezed by geology. The crowded towering pinnacles. The volcanic rock is very hard, so Shifeng has also become a paradise for rock climbing gods. For ordinary tourists, caving, camping, bird watching, stargazing, etc. are all activities that can be done.

From the perspective of scenery alone, the stone peaks in the park can be called ingenious, but they are not amazing, so tourists who are short of time can skip it. But if you live in the Bay Area for a long time, then it is suitable for your first national park trip, both in terms of travel difficulty and anticipation management (after all, Yosemite sets national park standards too high all of a sudden...) ; And if you're looking for a destination that you can enjoy in a day on the weekend, it's nowhere higher than those crowded withered hills in the Bay Area...

Shifeng National Park is divided into two disconnected parts, east and west, which are reached via Highways 25 and 101 respectively. In the middle, either take an 8mi trail or drive around for an hour and a half from the outside. Since the visitor center and most of the trails are on the east side, most people choose to enter the park from this side.

Next to the visitor center is the only campsite in the park. From here, continue into the park. The first pass is Peaks View Point , which has a panoramic view of Shifeng District. However, it will be closed for maintenance in 2022.

Turn left from the fork and drive all the way to the deepest Bear Gulch area, and you can start hiking on Shifeng's most famous cave! The cave in the west of the park is called Bear Gulch Cave , which is reached by a combination of Moses Spring Trail and Rim Trail. The journey outside the cave is flat, although there are stairs inside, but the slope is too steep, so you have to climb with iron cables.

Shifeng's rock pile cave (Talus Cave) is completely different from the common limestone caves, and it can't even be called a "cave" strictly speaking. It was originally Shifeng Canyon. Under the erosion of flowing water, the gravel falling from the top got stuck in the middle, forming a long and narrow rock tunnel.

The dark cave is home to the Big-Eared Bat (Corynorhinus townsendii) (it's really scary to hear about bats these days...). But for NPS, humans are far more troublesome than bats. For the breeding of bats, the cave is closed from May to July, and only the second half of the rest of the year is open, and only one week in March and October each year is fully open.

From the beginning to the end of the cave, all people are very narrow and knowledgeable, and there is no light after many steps, let alone suddenly enlightened. Turn off the headlights inside, feel the complete darkness around you, and the sound of the murmur of the dark river where you don't know where it is. It is so healing for claustrophobia. The park requires caving tourists to prepare flashlights, preferably headlights. Be very careful when using your mobile phone for lighting, it will fall into the dark river and dance with the bats as soon as you slip your hand~

From the cave, the trail ends at a small reservoir surrounded by pinnacles and canyons that have not yet formed a cave. You can also continue south on the unmaintained Chalone Peak Trail to reach the highest point of the park, and it is said that when the weather is good, you can even look directly over Monterey Bay.

After a break at the reservoir, you can turn back to the parking lot, or turn mid-way on the Rim Trail onto the High Peaks Trail and the Grand Loop of the Condor Gulch Trail to Pinnacle Peak, the heart of the park. At the beginning of this road, the scenery is very good. In April, in the Bay Area where everything is withered and yellow, the grass here is still green. Is it really a national park with outstanding people?

People also reach the High Peaks as the flat trails become boulders to be climbed with the help of guardrails. The majestic and precipitous rocks, with a little green embellishment, are a rare graceful scenery in the western part of the wilderness. It's no wonder that the major marketing accounts have been dubbed "Xiaohuangshan in the Bay Area" as a gimmick. The trail is very close to the pinnacles in some places, and you can clearly see and even touch the crushed texture of the igneous rock (but it is illegal to take the stone!).

Shi Feng is on the west side of the trail, and it is difficult to take pictures in the afternoon with the back light, but because it takes two hours to go out and it is difficult to wait until sunset, it is more comfortable to walk before noon.

Hiking in Shifeng, although there are no bears, deer and other well-known natives of national parks, but you can also encounter all kinds of animals along the way. The most famous of these are the endangered California Condors , the largest bird in North America. At one point there were only 22 left. The population has now recovered to about 500 in the protected area centered on Pinnacles. There is a chance to see them circling the sky for food while hiking in the peak areas. Rest assured, living animals are not their food.

I saw a big bird on the side of the road when I was going down the mountain to drive away. I was very excited when I took pictures. Now I have carefully compared it with the pictures on the official website, and I think it looks more like a turkey...

In spring, the fertile volcanic ash soil of Shifeng will support a large number of wildflowers. The park has a special manual to help you identify different varieties. I am blind, and I can’t do anything about flowers. This spring has heated up very quickly, I went a week late, and many wildflowers have already withered. Friends who love to see flowers, please come early next year~

Shi Feng does not allow backpacking, so for those who only play for a day, they can probably go back to the Bay Area to sleep after walking. On the way, I met an old Japanese grandpa who was going to camp for a night at the camp and take the Old Pinnacles Trail to Balcony Cave in the west the next day. The cave is famous for its abundant water in the dark river, and the experience of surging the river in the dark must also be very interesting.

Last but not least, although Shi Feng is unpopular, he can't help being too close to the Bay Area, and the peak season will still be crowded with bear children. The park operates a shuttle bus on summer weekends, and visitors can only park at the visitor center. For a better travel experience, try to stagger the peaks as much as possible (after all, it shouldn’t be very cool to hear the bear children cry in the cave...).

But anyway, it’s only a two-hour drive, and a trip to a national park may be easier than blocking the cross-bay bridge in the morning rush hour. Pinnacles National Park, just go!