Family Adventure Guide for a Pinnacles National Park Weekend in California

California’s least known National Park and NEWEST National park (it was upgraded from National Monument to National Park in 2013), Pinnacles National Park, is nestled in the Gabilan Mountains in the Central Coast, about 2 hours north of San Luis Obispo and 1.5 hours east of Monterey making it a perfect location for a weekend trip from Northern, Central or Southern California!  This amazing park is presumed to have been created by the shifting plates of the nearby San Andreas fault!  When we heard there were caves to explore there and the potential for Condor viewing we knew our family had to check out this National Park!  Spring is the perfect time to visit this park as it gets has very high temperatures in the summer and low temperatures in the winter, so we visited this park in April!

We combined our Pinnacles Trip with a trip to San Luis Obispo and Morro Bay for Spring Break and it was a great combination of different outdoor adventures and things to do. We were excited to find out that Pinnacles had Caves to explore as my kids LOVE to wear their camping headlight for any opportunity (these make fun birthday gifts for almost any age kid in your life too!)  So we filled our camelbaks, grabbed hiking sticks, packed lunch (to eat midway hike), headlamps for kids and a strong flashlight from the adults (don’t rely on your cell phone flashlight!) AND EXTRA SHOES strapped to our backpacks in case our feet got wet – and we were ready for our adventure!

We started from the East side of the Park as we knew we wanted to stop by the Pinnacles Visitor Center (East Entrance) and pick up a Junior Ranger Booklet for the kids!  Surprisingly very few people were there as it was a weekday although we hear it often is very busy on the weekend and holidays so get there when it opens to avoid extra hiking from the car to the trail head!  They do have tent and RV camping available at the Pinnacles Campground too, but this was just going to be a day trip for us!

THE BEAR GULCH CAVE HIKE aka Moses Spring to Rim Trail Loop: At about 10 am we drove into the Visitors Center from the East Entrance, used Shayla’s free 4th grade pass to get in to the park for free, picked up our Junior Ranger Booklets and drove to the Bear Gulch Day Use Area parking lot to start on the Moses Spring to Rim Trail Loop (2.2 mile round trip) (starts at south end of the parking lot). We had researched what trail would be best for our family ahead of time and decided on the Moses Spring to Rim Trail Loop as this would allow us to hike through caves and see the Reservoir with a hike that was not too long for the kids but not too short as to not seem like a hike!

There are lots of other great hike options and the Old Pinnacles Trail to Balconies Cave is supposed to be another great one but about twice as hard and twice as long (definitely when kids a bit older!). You will approach the first cave pretty quickly and then the trail splits into the Bear Gulch Cave trail and Moses Spring Trail (up into that point it really is just one trail with two names).  BOTH trails end up at the same place but Bear Gulch Cave goes through the talus caves and Moses Spring Trail goes over the talus caves ending up at the same place.  We wanted to go through the caves for sure! The kids switched on their headlamps, we turned on our flashlights and we went through into the boulder caves (also called talus caves as created by boulders) – there were boulders to squeeze under, dark areas that everyone needed their own light to see where their feet were going ahead of them, and staircases leading up and through the non climbable areas.  At some point we did have to scramble a bit over areas that were wet or water covered rocks and of course the kids ended up with wet shoes, so we were glad we had an extra pair, but the water was minimal.  A ranger mentioned at times the water can be much worse and make the cave hike harder for younger kids!  The water in caves depends mainly on the rainfall that year and time of year you are there, so you may have a lot of water to deal with or only a trickle of water to deal with on your hike. It was really neat for my kids ages 7 and 9 and I wasn’t too scared I would lose a kid in the crevices of the caves as you were through to the other side of the caves pretty quickly.  The kids loved scrambling over the rocks and puddles and would have liked to do even more of that than the hike portion itself!  After the caves, we carried on hiking to the top of the trail and about .5-1 mile reached the magnificent Bear Gulch Reservoir!  This view was amazing and so peaceful as there were not many people around at all.

We pulled out our lunches and ate them sitting on some nearby boulders while we took in the scenery and views and the kids worked on the Junior Ranger booklets.  One older couple stripped down to swimsuits or boxer shorts?! and jumped into the reservoir. I do not think swimming is allowed in the reservoir and we felt the water and it was REALLY COLD, so don’t plan on swimming!

After lunch, we hiked back to the parking lot via the Rim Trail and enjoyed taking turns looking through the binoculars for Condors (Pinnacles National Park is an official release site for the California Condors). I saw one at the very end of the hike soaring up and above us – what a sight!  The kids were sworn in as Junior Rangers for Pinnacles at the Visitors Center and we headed on to the next adventure!  All in all we were there for about 4.5 hours. We can’t wait to go back again when the kids are a little older and take the kids to the Balconies cave for another Pinnacles adventure!For weather, visiting hours updates, and any updates or closures, please visit the National Parks website. 

TOP TIP(S): Bring/Wear water shoes so you don’t have to hike in damp feet and WATCH OUT for Poison Oak!

DON’T MISS: Bringing your binoculars and scanning the skies for Condors!  (Look for tags on the wings to differentiate them from turkey vultures)