2002aug19. If you are from the bay area and you’re looking for a little weekend day trip, I am recommending Pinnacles National Monument. One of the trails (Balconies Caves Trail) features a short cave (I believe the other cave trail is currently closed) that opens out into the bottom of a giant crevice. This crevice is filled with house-sized boulders; you walk under all of them. This was the most amazing thing I’d seen in quite awhile, very surreal. The second most amazing thing was watching all of the families jetting through this crevice without comment. Most of them didn’t even look up, it was as if they were in line at the DMV. I wanted to point and scream, “Big scary rock! Directly overhead! We’re on the Hayward fault right now! No guarantee of your safety!” If you want to check it out, be aware that the park has no road connecting the West and East portions. We came around to the East entrance through Hollister, which means the trail to Balconies Caves Trail is a flat 2.3 miles. This seemed a bit long when coupled with the Balconies Caves/Cliff Trail loop; perhaps you’d be better off arriving at the West entrance by going through Soledad. Then the hike is only .6 miles, but of “moderate” difficulty. In any event, it seemed like approaching the Balconies Caves Trail from the East (it’s a loop) would lend itself to a more dramatic experience. Unless you’ve got to get new tags for your car.
