Dave and I spent the weekend at Pinnacles National Monument. The park recently acquired a large parcel of new land and this land includes the old campground that used to be just outside the East entrance. The land needs a lot work since it has missed out on the preservation done within the park, and we were happy to be a part of a volunteer crew that contributed a few hours to the park through a Geocaching CITO event.
There were two tasks that our group contributed to: the first was to pull out invasive horehound plants from the old ranch lands that are now part of the park. Thousands of plants were cleaned out by the crew – great job! The second task was to build a fence and work on trail re-vegitation in the campground. There was a big open meadow that had been stomped down by people over the years. We built a rustic wooden fence around it while others mulched up the old trails to prepare for re-vegitation. It was hard but fun work. It was quite interesting to learn about the park’s expansion, and also get some education about the park’s condor program (we watched them soaring far above us near a roost on a ridge).
After the work was done we hiked up into the Bear Gulch caves. This cave is only open a couple of weeks a year due to bats, and it’s the only part of the park we had not yet hiked. It was nice to finally crawl through this cave and do the small loop by the reservoir.
As part of the CITO event we camped out at one of the group camps in the campground. We had a great time and got to meet a lot of new faces – thanks everyone for the great night. Lots of wildlife was out in the campground – we had a bobcat wander through camp on Saturday evening, and on Sunday morning we followed a herd of feral pigs through the campground.
On Sunday morning we all parted ways and a few of us headed into the park for a longer hike through the High Peaks. This hike provided more opportunities for wildlife sightings by bringing us up close and personal with the condors, for which Pinnacles has an extensive program.
