Which entrance to choose for Pinnacles National Park (California): East or West?

Hi everyone! 🙂

I’m almost done planning our September road trip. After our 3-night visit to Sequoia, we’ll have a stopover night in Coalinga (to break up the drive). We’ll be staying two nights in Monterey and would like to stop along the way to visit one side of Pinnacles National Park. We’re torn between the West entrance and the East entrance, and we’d like to do a short hike of no more than 2 hours since we don’t want to arrive too late in Monterey.

This park is split into two distinct zones with no connection between them, and the mileage from Coalinga to Monterey is pretty much the same for both. Which area do you recommend visiting—east or west? And which route is the most scenic?

I’ve spotted two short hikes: - East: Moses Spring to Rim Trail Loop - West: Balconies Cliffs Cave Loop

Has anyone been there, or do you have another hike to suggest?

Thanks in advance, and have a great afternoon! Marcalamar 🙂

It all depends where you're coming from. We did Sequoia - Bakersfield - Elmer’s Bottle Tree Ranch - Ridgecrest, then Ridgecrest again the next day. Trona Pinnacles while staying on the 178, the north route, then the awful Searles Valley and Death Valley, arriving via the Mesquite Flat Dunes... The Trona Pinnacles—that’s the first *Star Wars* location. Super weird, you half-expect Obi-Wan Kenobi to show up.

Good evening Christian. 🙂 Cool to reconnect with another old-timer. We exchanged a few posts a few years back. We’ll be in Coalinga (south of Sequoia). I think we’re not talking about the same Pinnacles. The park I’m referring to is about a hundred km from Monterey, while yours is over 500 km away. Anyway, it’s nice of you to have replied. It’s much harder than before to get answers to our posts since the forum reopened. Have a good evening. Marcalamar 🙂

Hey there...

You can find info HERE (with answers to your questions and descriptions):

https://www.arizona-dream.com/usa/californie/pinnacles/pinnacles.php

Happy trails! Jean.

Hey buddy Jean 🙂 Still on the ball 👍 Thanks for the link. Have you hiked there? I’m still torn between the two caves. I get the feeling Balconies has more narrow and dark spots than the other one, which also has the little lake. I’ll study this carefully. Have a great weekend here in Toulon—super windy! Martine 🙂

Hello,

It was the "other" Pinnacles I had in mind for another project... I wasn’t familiar with this one!

You should stop by the Visitor Center first and maybe chat with them about which hikes to choose.

Happy trails! Jean.

Thanks Jean 🙂. Have a good evening

Hi Martine, this park is the one where I ended my trip. Check out my travel journal, Day 32, message 129. To answer your question more precisely: - I went from Coalinga to the east entrance of the park; I really liked the road through the Coast Range (photos from Day 31), - I did the hike I noted as "Balconies Cave Trail" in my journal—I explain why in there. That must be the one you’re talking about (starting at the east entrance). I found this hike pretty average—I don’t recommend it. In short: the road was great, the hike was average. That’s all I know about the park, but (from memory) there wasn’t another 2-hour hike starting at the east entrance. In my opinion, try to plan without this hike. If you can consider a longer hike, check the park’s website; otherwise, I’d suggest choosing the west entrance instead.

I’m revisiting my post from yesterday—I like things to be precise, and something didn’t sit right. The exact name of the hike I did is "Balconies Cliffs Cave Trail"; I entered through the east entrance. Parking at the trailhead is at the "Old Pinnacles Parking Area." You found this hike listed under the west entrance. So… what’s the deal?

I downloaded the park map from the official site and took a look. Everything became clear: this hike can be done from both entrances—it’s obvious when you check the map. The trail forms a loop. What changes is the distance to reach the loop: about 1 km if you come from the west, and about 3 km if you come from the east. The loop itself is just under 2 km. If you download the map, you’ll see. If you can’t, I can send you the PDF via email (DM me).

I don’t recommend this hike—I found it "mediocre" (as I mentioned yesterday). The first two photos from day 32 were taken along the route.

So, you’re left with the choice between this hike and the one you found, which is linked to the east entrance (I haven’t done that one). I’m not sure if spending more time on the park’s website will turn up anything else.

Hi Michel 🙂 Thanks again for looking back over my round trip. I saw your first email yesterday and couldn’t figure out how you got to Balconies Cliffs Trail via the East entrance, especially since you mentioned starting at Old Pinnacles, which is definitely the East entrance. Your second post cleared things up—it’s not the same hike.

The Moses Spring to RIM Trail Loop starts from a different parking lot (Moses Spring Parking Area). It’s listed as about 2 hours and just under 4 km. I found the details and the map on an American site (long live the translator 😉), plus a short YouTube video that sums it up well.

There are two caves to walk through, a small water retention area, and you return to the parking lot by following a rim. After your first message, I even considered skipping the park and heading up to Monterey via Highway 1, but I decided against it because it really adds time, and we wouldn’t have been on the right side of the road either. So, I’m sticking with my original plan, and we’ll drive part of Highway 1 between our two nights in Monterey. I saw you really liked the road after Three Rivers. We’re staying right by Lake Kaweah. We’ll take our time getting to Coalinga (just a stopover town to break up the drive) and enjoy the scenery. Thanks again for all your research, and have a great evening! Martine 🙂