Pinnacles National Park
Paicines / Soledad · near Soledad (west entrance) / Hollister (east entrance) · Central Coast
Rock Climbing · parks
At a glance
- Skill level
- intermediate
- Grade range
- 5.4 to 5.12 · Good beginner through intermediate routes
- Best season
- March–May and October–November · Summer heat intense in this inland area · Winter can be excellent
- Size
- 26606
- Established
- 2013
Permits and booking
- Permit
- No climbing permit required. Standard NPS entry fee ($35/vehicle). Some raptor nesting closures apply in spring — check the NPS website before visiting (nps.gov/pinn). East entrance is better for climbers than the west entrance.
Worth knowing
- Good for a first timer
- Yes
Rock Climbing detail
- Climb types
- trad · sport · top-rope
- Rock type
- Volcanic breccia — the most unusual rock in California climbing
- Route count
- 150+ routes · East side access easiest for climbers
- Signature routes
- Tourist Trap (5.6) · Discovery Wall (5.8) · Old Duffer's Route (5.7)
- First timer note
- Pinnacles is genuinely accessible for intermediate self-guided climbers but lacks a guide service. Experienced climbers can bring beginner friends and set up top-ropes. Don't come expecting the infrastructure of Yosemite or Joshua Tree.
- Intl tip
- The California condors at Pinnacles are one of the most extraordinary wildlife encounters in California. These birds — with 9-foot wingspans, nearly driven to extinction in the 1980s — regularly soar directly above the climbing crags. Combine a morning of climbing with an afternoon hike to the Bear Gulch cave system and a condor watch at the High Peaks viewpoint.
parks detail
- Hook
- Talus caves and condors among the eroded spires of an ancient volcano — the newest CA national park (2013)
- More
- Theodore Roosevelt protected these spires in 1908; the 2013 upgrade made it the newest national park in the state. It's a condor release site — scan the ridgelines at dusk — and bring a headlamp for the Bear Gulch and Balconies talus caves, seasonally closed for bat pupping.
The guide
Pinnacles is unlike any other California climbing area. The volcanic breccia — ancient lava flows compressed into orange, chunk…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Pinnacles National Park — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 36.4906, -121.1825