Sunrise Over America’s Newest National Park: Pinnacles

Sunrise Over America’s Newest National Park: Pinnacles

Image by Tom.Bricker
I think most people who know me are aware that I’m a little (or a lot, depending upon who you ask) crazy, and push things to the limits.

So it should come as no surprise that after a long night at a wedding in San Francisco last month, I got up just before 4 am and set out on the 2.5 hour voyage to catch the sunrise at Pinnacles National Park.

It was an impulsive move, although I think Sarah saw it coming. On a whim the day before, I pulled up the Google Maps app to see how far the nearest National Park was to us. From there, I started researching Pinnacles (a park I knew very little about before the trip) on my phone, and saw the awesome volcanic erosion and read that it was a California Condor release site. I figured I’d definitively decide the next morning whether I was up for it…but there was no way I wasn’t going to be up for it. I was still tired that morning, but it was pretty easy to get out of bed with a sight like this as the reward.

Like many National Parks, the route to Pinnacles went through the middle of nowhere, and I lost service about 20 miles from my destination. Also like the route to many National Parks, there were no gas stations within 20 miles of the park, and I was really low on gas. When I finally arrived, I still had about 45 minutes until sunrise, but I had no idea where to drive for the best view. Plus, my gas situation wasn’t the best. After going left at a fork in the road and driving about 5 miles, I realized that my choice would take me to a lower elevation, whereas the right would’ve taken me to a higher elevation. My gas situation being what it was, I didn’t have much of a choice but to try to hike to the higher elevation for the sunrise.

While most of my "chasing the sun" stories have happy endings, this one does not. The 2.5 mile hike took longer than I hoped, and my body gave a firm "no" when I tried to run up the mountains as the sun peaked over them. Not only did I not photograph the sunrise over the volcano remnants, but I did not see any California Condors. I did see some turkeys, but living in Indiana, that’s nothing special.

It was still worth it to visit, if only for a couple hours, as the park was beautiful to see, and I didn’t run out of gas on the way back, so I guess that’s a victory!

Thanks for your views, comments, and favorites!

DisneyTouristBlog | TravelCaffeine | Facebook | Twitter | Photo Gallery | ISO 5571 – Podcast