Agile Trekker

Monday, May 4, 2026

Balconies Cliffs-Balconies Cave Loop and Jawbone Trail, Pinnacles National Park, California

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
4/10/2026	2.9 miles	2 hours 57 minutes	300'	1.6 mph	77.4

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
4/10/2026	3.5 miles	1 hour 49 minutes	585'	2.0 mph	80.9

Parking:

Balconies Trail: Chaparral Parking Area
Jawbone Trail: State Route 146

Map:

Gaia GPS app
National Park map, available at the nature center.

Directions:

Balconies Trail: Take the Balconies Trail. Where the trail splits, keep left on the Balconies Cliffs Trail. Stay straight to take the Balconies Caves Trail. Stay straight to return on the Balconies Trail.
Jawbone Trail: Hike from Route 146 to the Jawbone Parking area. Return the same way. Note there is a small loop within the trail that we did.
See descriptions at the visitor center.

Today's forecast was for rain and possible thunderstorms, so we did a shorter hike starting from the west side. We hiked on the Balconies Trail and did a clockwise loop on the Balconies Cliffs Trail. Again, there were so many wildflowers in bloom. We turned onto Balconies Cave Trail and entered the cave. They tell you that you will be in darkness for 15 minutes. There was lots of rock scrambling in the cave - it was fun. One of my friends is claustrophobic and was swearing, but she made it through and loved it after the fact. We returned back on the Balconies Trail.

We took a lunch break at the trailhead and spent our time talking to a couple from San Francisco (one originally from Alaska). They were grilling "real" food on a Coleman grill. We were jealous.

Then Dian and I hiked from West Visitor Center Contact Station and hiked the Prevett Point Trail to the Jawbone Trail to the Jawbone Parking area and back. It was easy going on the way out and a bit of a climb coming back. We saw two kinds of lizards.

Back at the hotel, we had guacamole with half of our avocados (10 avocados for 50 cents) and una cerveza.

Silverpuffs

California Cudweed

Goldentop Grass

Butterfly Mariposa Lily

Cave entrance

Thistle

Purple Owl's-clover

San Francisco Woodland-star

Turnaround spot

Lace lichen

Sunday, May 3, 2026

Juniper Canyon Loop and a sunset, Pinnacles National Park

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
4/9/2026	4.2 miles	4 hours 35 minutes	1,195'	1.4 mph	74.5

Parking:

Chapparal Parking Area

Map:

Gaia GPS app
National Park map, available at the nature center.

Directions:

Take the Juniper Canyon Trail. At the intersection, keep right on the Juniper Canyon Trail. Turn left onto the High Peaks Trail. Turn left onto the Tunnel Trail. Turn right onto the Juniper Canyon Trail.

We woke up early to hike the Juniper Loop trail. It was nice to get to the parking lot early, as there was plenty of parking. This trail is a lollypop. It involved lots of climbing. At the loop, we went right to take the loop counterclockwise. That meant ascending the steeper more difficult way (much better than descending that way). The sign calls the steep section "Steep and Narrow." That it is. The hike description says the maximum grade is 88%!!!! The trail becomes narrow along a cliff but has handrails. Then there were steep spots with footholds cut into the rock. I put my hiking poles away.

We saw condors - both in trees & flying above. They have large visible tags on them. They also have white on the bottoms of their wings, which distinguishes them from turkey vultures.

The trail was bursting with wildflowers! Flowers are everywhere. This was perfect timing for being here. Mornings were cool, afternoons were hotter with sun exposure. We took a few breaks to enjoy the views.

In the afternoon, we hung out in town. We stopped at a grocery store - it was interesting to see that all of the signs were in Spanish first, with English in smaller letters underneath. Soledad is mostly a Hispanic town. We saw lots of grapes being grown between Soledad and the park - I'm sure there are some wineries to visit. We drove back to the west side of the park in the evening to watch a sunset. We drove around quite a bit & finally decided on a pullout - a sign said no camping or overnight parking, but we guessed it was okay to park there temporarily to watch the sunset. We climbed through a gate and walked into a meadow to watch the sunset. Beautiful! The park entrance on the west side closes at 8pm, so we had to leave shortly before then (the east entrance is open 24-hours, but again, you can't drive to the east section within the park). The west side of the park is about a 22-minute drive from Soledad.