My strongest memories of Pinnacles remains wandering through a wildflower meadow dominated by with brightly blooming California Poppies. Its vibrant orange blossoms were a show of delight against the dry chaparral vegetation, and egged me to go further on the trail on that warm spring day. I thought that was all there was to Pinnacles, but in my subsequent visits, I discovered that this park had far more to offer: I tracked breeding pairs of California Condors with a wildlife biologist, squeezed through narrow clefts and clambered over steep pinnacles, and watched the night skies above and the delicate under-canopy below.

It was perhaps this reason that Pinnacles was designated a National Park in 2013. While it may not carry the epic grandeur that is typical of National Parks, it preserves a rather unique part of California

Pinnacles National Park
CA USA