Best Hikes in Pinnacles National Park

After splurging on an annual National Park Pass in Lassen National Park, we were extremely happy with the adventures that we immersed ourselves in there. Next, with our VIP Card (NP pass) in hand, we were excited try some hikes in Pinnacles National Park.

Pinnacles is a relatively small national park, near Soledad in Central California. It is also a relatively new national park, designated so in 2013.

The campground in Pinnacles National Park is very nice but wasn’t in our budget. So before checking out the hikes in Pinnacles National Park we found an unexpectedly awesome free BLM campground in the Laguna Mountain Recreation Area. Sweetwater Campground, although a bit of a drive from Pinnacles, ended up being a great find! Learn more about the amenities, scenery and recreation activities in our Sweetwater Campground article here.

Now that we had a home base, we were ready to find out what Pinnacles National Park was all about. When we got to the east entrance of the national park we picked up a brochure/map at the Pinnacles Visitor Center. After orienting ourselves and looking over the hikes in Pinnacles National Park we noticed that many of the trails lead to the same places. So instead of setting out to tackle each one individually, we created our own epic loop! See our route highlighted on the map below.

Quick Hike Details

Directions: From Hollister, take CA-25 south to the junction with CA-146 W and make a slight right onto CA-146 W. After 3.8 miles turn left before continuing another 1.2 miles before making a sharp left. The trail begins from the Bear Gulch Day Use parking area.

Distance: about 11.5 mile round trip loop

Difficulty: Moderate

Best Hikes in Pinnacles National Park

Many of the hikes in Pinnacles National Park lead to some of the more impressive features of the park. The length of the trails were so manageable that we combined many sections of the various trails to create this epic loop!

The loop that we created to explore the highlights of the park was amazingly scenic and enjoyable with very little repetition or back tracking. Note that we did not do all of these trails in their entirety but we used sections of them to create this hike. And here’s the route we took and the sights we saw:

Bear Gulch Trail Section

We parked at Bear Gulch Day Use Area and picked up Bear Gulch Trail. Immediately it was very pretty! The trail passed under beautiful fall colored oaks where there were picnic tables, grills and water spigots. The trail led us to a small parking lot with restrooms.

From here we took the trail towards Reservoir Caves. The trail climbed up through the trees and started meandering through cool boulders and began exposing large rock formations! Then, at the intersection we picked up Moses Spring Trail continuing towards Reservoir Caves

Moses Spring Trail

This portion of the hike was really cool. The trail hugged rock walls and boulders, passed through a tunnel and led through a rock hallway.

Before we knew it we made it to the entrance of the cave! We got our light out and followed Bear Gulch Cave Trail down, through, and under some huge boulders!

Bear Gulch Cave Trail

The trail passes through a metal gate then through a narrows-like section. Then, inside this cave created by massive stacked boulders, there’s a staircase! We also could see and hear water trickling down the cave walls into small pools between boulders. Next there is a sign to the upper caves but this area was closed for now.

So we followed the trail out of the cave and up a steep staircase to the very beautiful Bear Gulch Reservoir. The rocks around the reservoir and the rock formations spread out in the distance beyond the reservoir looked really cool. From Bear Gulch Reservoir we turned left onto Rim Trail.

Rim Trail

Rim Trail began with a climb offering an excellent overlook of the reservoir below. We weren’t on Rim Trail for very long but it showcased the rocky landscape from above rather from down in it.

The rocks and boulders looked gorgeous, contrasting with the vast rolling green hills spanning far into the distance. We noticed a lot of rock climbers in this area of the hikes in Pinnacles National Park. At the next signed intersection you have the option to finish by completing the small loop back to Bear Gulch Day Use parking area. This is where we continued onto High Peaks Trail.

High Peaks Trail

High Peaks Trail seemed to be one of the main hikes in Pinnacles National Park, seeing how most trails in the parked accessed this particular area. The trail stayed high showing the exposed rock formations scattered about on the surrounding hills.

The trail passed through a short tunnel, gradually bringing us closer to the towering rock formations and cliffs.

Explore it Later – Pin it Now!

Once we reached the huge boulders, the trail continued climbing via switchbacks up to Scout Peak. From Scouts Peak, there was a great vista! And surprisingly there are restrooms (a vault toilet) way up here. A little past Scouts Peak is another fabulous vista, showing off another portion of Pinnacles National Park. Here we followed the Steep and Narrow Section of High Peaks Trail.

Steep and Narrow Section

The name of this section sparked our curiosity and it delivered! The view from the trail revealed that we were experiencing the heart of the pinnacles, awesome rock formations all around! The trail meandered through these formations offering opportunity after opportunity to be amazed. Further along the Steep and Narrow Section we climbed some switchbacks and then the actual trail itself got exciting.

The path had steep narrow stairs, forcing us up against the side of the boulders as we passed. Stairs and handrails on a trail sounds kind of silly but they really added to the experience.

As we continued along this section of the trail these features made the hike interesting, exciting and engaging. And the views were fantastic the entire time! After playing on the Steep and Narrow Trail, feeling like something out of a Discovery Zone, our next segment of the loop was Tunnel Trail.

Tunnel Trail

Not long after we picked up Tunnel Trail, we spotted a California Condor. It was pretty magnificent taking in its wingspan as it soared.

Tunnel Trail started to descend through some impressive rock formations. Eventually it led to, you guessed it, a tunnel!

The tunnel was relatively long making for another unique feature to be found on the cool hikes in Pinnacles National Park. Next, we followed signs for Chaparral Picnic Area via Juniper Canyon Trail.

Juniper Canyon Trail

Juniper Canyon Trail continued the descent through the unique rock formations that we had just been admiring from above. There was a lot of descending on this portion of the loop! ‘

The trail, still descending, started leaving the huge rock formations and mellowed out as it passed through shady oaks. The trail leveled out a bit until we arrived at the Chaparral Picnic Area. There were restrooms, picnic tables, and water fountains here.

It was super convenient to have a place to restock our water supply in the middle of hiking a loop! After we refilled our water we began the Balconies Trail segment of our loop.

Balconies Trail

Balconies Trail was a mellow trail through sections of shady oaks but still situated between very impressive, massive rock formations.

This section of the trail was a very pleasant walk and very visually appealing. Before we knew it we had arrived at the entrance to Balconies Cave Trail.

Balconies Cave Trail

Balconies Cave Trail led us right to the areas of emptiness among the massive stacked boulders. Then we passed through the metal gate and made our way through the boulders. When the trail looked like it didn’t continue, we looked down into the darkness and noticed little white arrows luring us down the rabbit hole. Exploring this part of Balconies Cave was pretty cool. Then we saw the light up ahead and exited out of a metal door. The rest of this section of the trail passed through a beautiful mixed area of rocks and oaks. At the next split in the trail, we headed towards Balconies Cliffs Trail.

Balconies Cliff Trail

Balconies Cliff Trail climbed up, allowing us the views of the Balconies Cliffs that we didn’t see while passing through the Balconies Cave.

This segment also makes a great way to create a loop from the cave back to the parking area for a shorter hike. But we headed back down the Balconies Cliff Trail to pick up Old Pinnacles Trail.

Old Pinnacles Trail

Old Pinnacles Trail was mellow as it passed some boulders and some clearings. The trail followed the dry West Fork Chalone Creekbed and crossed a few bridges as well. This segment was peaceful, calm and provided some shade. We saw a few deer here, too. After a couple miles on Old Pinnacles Trail we turned onto Bench Trail.

Bench Trail

We followed Bench Trail for about one mellow mile. This segment was relatively level, passed under a bridge and led us through the woods to the final segment of our loop, Bear Gulch Trail.

Bear Gulch Trail

This segment of Bear Gulch Trail was very beautiful! It was wild, colorful, and we even found some water. There were numerous little cute bridges along this one mile section.

The last half mile had a decent sized ascent through a gorgeous wooded area and more rocks started reappearing. After the climb, the trail paralleled the Bear Gulch Road for a bit before bringing us out to our vehicle!

Thanks for reading about the best hikes in Pinnacles National Park!

What a place! And what a loop! Although we didn’t complete the individual hikes in Pinnacles National Park we were able to combine sections of many of the hikes to see a lot of really fascinating features! We had an amazing time checking out Pinnacles National Park! The landscape and features made for a really engaging adventure.

If you’d like to see more cool hiking adventures, check out the links below:

• Backpacking Lassen Volcanic National Park
• Hiking and Camping at Fossil Falls
• Hiking Owens Peak in the Southern Sierras

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