Pacific Coast Trip: West Pinnacles

Written By Jason Gray

While our travel days are not nearly as long as when we used to travel without an RV, it is still nice to break up the time with a quick stop in a beautiful place. We saw the signs for the west entrance of Pinnacles National Park and took the detour. Later we read what we had discovered on the road to the park; RVs are not recommended on this road. Oops! We did okay, minus the driver who sped around the corner and almost ran right into us. That woke us up!

I want to put in a plug for the braille signage at this park. It has a great tactile map of the park outside the visitor center. Inside, each of the exhibits has metal, portable braille signs with the same information. The park ranger stated this was only on the west entrance. The east entrance doesn’t have the same accessible access. It’s a great start though!

 
Large, waist high metal tactile map of Pinnacles’ spires. Right side of map displays 9 rock samples with braille descriptions. Left side of map shows where each rock is found in the spires.
 
 
Wooden, wall-mounted file holder is labeled 4.0. A hand is holding a metal, portable sign labeled 4.1. Close-up of a part of the brailled sign.
 

Ainsley:

I started out the day by packing the RV again. We left Paso Robles to head to Santa Cruz. Before arriving in Santa Cruz, we went to Pinnacles National Park. It was pretty! I won another junior ranger badge. It was educational! We also went on a hike. It was delightful! I saw a lizard. It was fast! On top of one of the pinnacles, there were strange trees. We still don’t know what they are because they were so far away. They were shaped like a big mushroom. It was a light green with many spaces in between the branches. At Pinnacles National Park, there are Talus caves. They are canyons with big boulders over them. It is very dark in these caves where bears and bats live. When we were done with the hike, I got my junior ranger badge.

 
Park ranger stands behind a desk and computer with his right hand raised. Travis & Ainsley are standing on opposite side of desk with their hands raised and facing the ranger.
 

I looked around the visitor center and saw a box of feathers. There was owl and condor wing feathers. There was also an acorn in a bag. They were all marvelous!

 
Travis & Ainsley stand behind the Pinnacles National Park welcome sign. Picture can see their shoulders and up. The sign is a rock wall with a rectangular cement block. The wall has the NPS arrowhead mounted on it. The block has an outline of th…
 

Travis:

Today was a driving day from Palos Verdes to Santa Cruz. On the way, we stopped at Pinnacles National Park. The rocks are pretty and huge. The rocks are why the park is called Pinnacles. The rocks are special because they are spires. We got our junior ranger badges here.

 
Travis and Jason sit next to each other on a cement block outside. There is a short rock wall spanning the width of the picture in the background. Travis is writing in his jr ranger book. Jason is watching him write.
 

There are condors there but we didn't see one.😥 Condors are released from captivity here. We hiked a trail that gave us a very good view of the rock spires. The spires were created by earthquakes and volcanic activity. We saw a weird tree that looked like a mushroom. When we got to the campsite we discovered it had Redwood Trees!😁 There was a cool hollow spot in a stump where Ainsley and I could play in it. We had a very cool day today, I wish we can do it again

 
Jason, Ainsley, and Travis walk away from the camera in a scattered line. They are walking on a dirt trail along the slope of a grassy hill.
 
Jason Gray
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Pacific Coast Trip: Monterey