Pinnacles National Monument

The Pinnacles area is a National Monument and is looked after by the National Park Service. The Pinnacles mountain is geologically very interesting. The core of the mountain is solidified lava from an ancient volcano. Some is still covered (the twin peaks), but some has been exposed by erosion and the rocks jut out in a stunning jumble of cliffs, pinnacles, towers and terraces. The mountain sits directly atop the San Andreas fault, and is in fact only the Western (Pacific plate) half of the original volcanic core. The Eastern, (North American plate), half is some hundreds of miles further south, having been left behind by the motion of the Pacific plate.

Pinnacles Ranch Airfield is the nearest airstrip, but it is private.

Here are a couple of pictures of the Pinnacles.

The shiny spots in the foreground is sunlight reflecting off clouds.

The snaking whitish line at the bottom of the picture is the Balconies Trail.

This is one of the few places where I feel the view from the air is not as good as the view from the ground, unless you get dangerously close. Even at 3000' there was a fair bit of turbulence so I wasn't going to get any closer. The National Park Service has a Pinnacles Web Site as has the Great Outdoors Recreation Pages.