North Wilderness Loop
Hike Review
Cassie and I started at the Jawbone Parking Area at Pinnacles National Park. We hiked a loop using the North Wilderness Trail, Old Pinnacles Trail, Balconies Caves Trail, and the Balconies Trail.
North Wilderness Trail and the Balconies Caves Trail were single-track trails while the Old Pinnacles Trail and the Balconies Trail were double-track trails.
The North Wilderness Trail starts by going up to a hillside ridge and then down to the North Fork Creek, which it follows until it intersects the Old Pinnacles Trail. Due to the creek, it has a decent amount of shade, which I was pleasantly surprised by. Unfortunately, I was also surprised by the amount of poison oak and insects that we encountered on the trail. This trail crossed the creek half a dozen times and Cassie got her shoe wet a few times.
The rest of the trails are much better managed and generally nicer to hike. I thought the Old Pinnacles Trail was the prettiest, with ample shade, well-managed poison oak, and lots of greenery.
We only met one person while on the North Wilderness Trail and saw maybe ~20 people on the other three trails (combined).
Parking was full at the Chaparral Parking Area (as we started late), but we were able to park in the Jawbone Parking Area, which serves as the overflow parking lot. Both of these parking areas have nicely stocked bathrooms (though Jawbone Parking Area does not have a sink to wash hands).
What I Learned
It was our first warm weather hike of the year, and while we dressed smartly with lots of protection from the sun, we underestimated how much water we would need (and how overheated I would get). Cassie packed 2 liters of water, while I packed 1.5 liters; we both ran out of water with about a mile to go. We had water waiting for us in the car, so it wasn’t a huge deal, but we should have packed another liter in case we ran into trouble.
While wearing shorts was the right decision for me, Cassie probably should have worn pants. We had to wade through lots of tall grass, which meant that ticks and poison oak were of high concern for us.
What Happened?
10.3 miles, 4 hrs 58 mins, 1396 ft of ascent
Years ago, I had read somewhere that the North Wilderness Trail at Pinnacles was a rarely used trail that wasn’t that interesting. Maybe I saw it as a challenge or maybe I was drawn by the “Wilderness” designation, but ever since, I had wanted to hike this trail. And on this weekend, we had initial plans to go visit Yosemite, but once that fell through, we immediately switched our plans to Pinnacles. Since it was so close, and since we had a long week, we slept in, and got to the park around noon.
As soon as the hike started, we knew that it would be a long one. It was hot, and I immediately felt that I was overheating. When we got to the top of the ridge (which is the single big elevation gain of the day), I felt hot and I was drinking far more water than I had thought I would.
90% of the green you see in this picture is poison oak
The rest of the hike is pretty flat, but due to the unkempt nature of the trail, we could not hike at the usual pace that we would hike a trail like this. Instead, we dodged all the poison oak, carefully waded through the tall grass, and tried our best not to get our feet wet on the creek crossings. Both of us also had to deal with the pollen that we were bombarded with, with Cassie succumbing to sniffling and a bit of fatigue until the conditions got better at Old Pinnacles Trail.
Once we got to the Old Pinnacles Trail, it was like night and day. Because this trail is a double-track, well-kempt trail, we were able to hike faster. Also, Cassie’s allergy reaction improved markedly on this trail. The rest of the hike had no surprises, with the Balconies Caves being the coolest (and most fun) part of the hike, and the last mile being a too-hot-hike-with-no-shade.
When we finished, we sped to the closest gas station, where I downed a liter of Gatorade, while Cassie drank a big bottle of coconut water. Even after that, we drank a ton of water when we stopped for dinner on the way home.
My biggest takeaway from this way is that this trail isn’t that nice, as other trails around Pinnacles have so much more to offer. Still, if solitude was higher on our list of needs, we would have definitely rated this trail higher.
