12/13/11

Pinnacles National Monument: Moses Spring Trail

I camped in the Pinnacles last night. Teddy Roosevelt set aside the Pinnacles National Monument in 1908, the same week he also set aside the Grand Canyon and Muir Woods. (Congress creates National Parks but National Monuments are created by presidential proclamation. [The National Park Service later assumed administration of all of them.]) I went for a short hike after I set up camp, before the sun went down. I had the place to myself.

IMG_3300

IMG_3301

IMG_3304

The long-extinct Neenach Volcano created these stone formations before the San Andreas fault sheered off half the volcano and moved it here, ~2.5 hours south of San Francisco.

IMG_3320

IMG_3308

Pinnacles is known for its talus caves, formed by rocks falling down between other rocks and leaving openings where the rocks do not pack together tightly.

IMG_3322

IMG_3328

IMG_3330

IMG_3378

IMG_3331

IMG_3333

IMG_3340

IMG_3342

IMG_3345

IMG_3350

IMG_3355

IMG_3359

IMG_3366

IMG_3313

IMG_3373

First it rained, and then it froze.



There is more to come.

6 comments:

Juliet said...

Awesome pics! I've not really seen much about Pinnacles in the past (where have I been?!?) and now I'm dying to explore it.

chuck b. said...

Find time to go when it's not summer.

Jason (the commenter) said...

Looks beautiful, but also a little scary, what with having to walk under giant boulders.

Brent said...

Amazing!

Queer by Choice said...

Wow! That looks like an amazing trail. Why have I never been to this place? I think I need to go to this place.

Anonymous said...

Amazing place, the photos of the reflections in the lake are so beautiful. Wow!