America has a new national park

photo: TheBrockenInaGlory on wikimedia.com

America's newest National Park, its 59th, calls California home. Pinnacles National Monument became a National Park with a stroke of President Obama's pen on January 10.
Rising out of the Gabilan Mountains east of central California's Salinas Valley, Pinnacles is the result of millions of years of erosion, faulting and tectonic plate movement. Within the park's boundaries lie nearly 27,000 acres of diverse wild lands. Visitors will find beauty and variety of its spring wildflowers and more than 400 species of native bees. The Pinnacles rock formations are a popular destination to challenge technical and beginner climbers alike.

Designated as a national monument in 1908 by President Theodore Roosevelt, the park's management will not change by the legislation that brought about its birth. The Pinnacles National Park Act recognizes the broader significance of park resources, specifically the chaparral, grasslands, blue oak woodlands, and majestic valley oak savanna ecosystems of the area, the area's geomorphology, riparian watersheds, unique flora and fauna, and the ancestral and cultural history of native Americans, settlers and explorers.

NPS photo

Pinnacles serves as a California Condor incubator, one of only three release sites in the nation. Thirty-one free-flying condors call the park "home." Wild chicks are monitored by biologists and volunteers. Aside from condor watching, there are other draws to visitors. If you're a "heavy duty trail hiker," than you may find some great views from the steep trails throughout the park's volcanic pinnacles.

NPS photo

Not in to the high stuff? Cave exploration is possible in the park's talus caves, created when narrow canyons filled up with boulders, leaving passages in between the big rocks. Popular Bear Gulch cave on the park's eastern side, like its cousins the Balconies caves on the west, are home to colonies of Townsend's big-eared bats. Park managers try to keep the caves open as much as possible, up to ten months out of the year, but occasionally do close them, either by section or in entirety, when "pupping" season rolls around.

NPS photo

You'll find camping on the east side of the park at the Pinnacles Campground. There are both tent and RV sites, and many of the latter offer electric hookups, and water and a dump station are available. Bring your swim gear--the pool is open, generally from mid-April to the end of September. Leashed pets are OK in the campground, and on roads and in parking lots.

The rock formations of Pinnacles National Monument and the Gabilan Mountain Range divide the park into East and West Districts which are connected by trails, but not by a vehicle road. More than 30 miles of trails access geological formations, spectacular vistas and wildland communities. Pinnacles National Park is a day-use park, with occasional full moon hikes and dark sky astronomical observations led by ranger-interpreters.

Get more information at the park's website.