Pinnacles—Photographer’s Delight
Climb Review
We only climbed one route on this day because my ankle felt a bit funny. It was one route I had wanted to climb for a while, so it was nice checking it off.
Photographer’s Delight (5.5, Photographer’s Delight)—This route felt easy for a 5.5. I sport climbed this route and roped a rock sticking out to protect myself before I reached the first bolt. I am way too scared of heights, so I did not stand up at the top. Cassie then climbed up to the crowded top, where we then rappelled in the opposite order.
Thanks to Russel for taking the pictures above!
Hike Review
It had been a while since I wanted to show Cassie the High Peaks Trail at Pinnacles National Park, which is one of the coolest trails near the Bay Area. But at the same time, it felt a little too easy to just hike it up, so we decided to bring along our rock climbing gear and climb up one of two routes as we came across them.
Near the top of the hike, there is a hike along the ridge of Pinnacles Peaks where there are stone steps cut into the rock, as well as steel pipe railing. This is the coolest part of the hike, and we had a great time getting our heartbeats up to climb a bit. Although, our heart rates were already elevated from the elevation gain.
There were very few people on the trail on this day. But we ran into this amazing couple that took pictures of us climbing, which was so generous of them. In turn, we answered many of their rock climbing questions.
The Balconies Cave Trailhead had a ton of parking spots. The bathroom was clean and nicely provisioned.
What Happened?
5.2 miles, 4 hrs 45 mins, 1550 ft of ascent
Ever since Cassie entered my life, I have made it my mission to show her all the coolest hikes that I know of. Given that I think so highly of the High Peaks Trail at Pinnacles National Park, I had been waiting for the opportunity to take her. On this day, finally, we figured out a day where it wasn’t too hot, too wet, or where we weren’t too tired.
Pinnacles National Park, especially the trail up to the High Peaks part of the hike, is one where the views are just godly. I say godly, because I imagine that if there was a human-like cosmic being who could move mountains, I think they would have created Pinnacles National Park similar to how we humans create rock gardens. There are these enormous, mountain-sized boulders that stand up proud among trees and bushes; in many mornings, there is a beautiful fog that adds a bit of drama, then of course, there are these humongous vultures that ride the thermal drifts to glide infinitely.
While Cassie has seen plenty of this view, especially when we climbed up the Citadel, the High Peaks Trail is a unique trail that reminds me of the types of trails I see in Zion where there are guardrails that stop you from dropping off a cliff and steps that are cut into rock to help the regular hiker get to places in a safe manner.
For us, we love being here and we just enjoyed this hike as we searched for a rock climb that would be easy enough given that we had not climbed outdoors in such a long time. We contemplated a route or two, but kept going until we got to Photographer’s Delight. We stopped, got our gear out, and I started to climb up as this nice couple stopped to take photos of us. They actually took photos of us until we climbed up and down the route.
And once we finished, we got to where the High Peaks Trail ends at a pass connecting the east and west sides of the park. Here we stopped for a bit while Cassie painted and I scampered around the rocks. Afterwards, we hiked down to our car, and headed off to our favorite Mexican restaurant near Pinnacles—Cocuyos Restaurant in Soledad.
