Nothing prepares you for the sight of them. Suddenly, popping
out of the Central Valley like a stage set, are the towering
rock spires of the Pinnacles, a Bryce-Canyon-in-miniature and a
place like no other in California. Thanks to the “Pinnacles
National Park Act” passed in the last hours of the last
Congress, the former national monument was “upgraded” to
national park status, and became America’s 59th and newest
national park. Crowning the obscure Gabilan Range, the Pinnacles
are located some 150 miles south of San Francisco, 300 miles
north of Los Angeles, and about 25 miles from nowhere.Pinnacles
is very much a hiker’s park—and a most memorable one. Besides
the high spires, there are slopes bristling with gray pine, dark
caves, wildflower-strewn meadows, rolling grassland and a pretty
canyon cut by Chalone Creek. Most of the park’s major features
can only be visited on foot. The San Andreas Fault is located
four miles to the east of the national park’s eastern boundary.
Hikers can see the infamous rift z