Pinnacles National Park
Paicines / Soledad · near Hollister (east) / Soledad (west) · Central Coast
Caving
At a glance
- Depth
- 40
- Season
- Year-round · Bear Gulch Cave seasonally closed for bat breeding (typically March–July, check NPS website) · Balconies Cave: more consistently open
- Cost
- $35/vehicle NPS fee or America the Beautiful Pass · No additional cave fee
- Difficulty
- Moderate · Scrambling over boulders · Flashlight essential · Balconies Cave may have cold knee-deep water in winter/spring
Permits and booking
- Permit
- No permit beyond park entry. Check bear-gulch-cave closure status at nps.gov/pinn before visiting — seasonal closures for bat protection are enforced.
Worth knowing
- Good for a first timer
- Yes
- Gear
- Flashlight or headlamp (required — genuinely dark inside) · Water shoes or gaiters if water present (Balconies in wet season) · Sturdy shoes with grip for boulder scrambling · Check NPS website for current closure status before visiting
Caving detail
- Nickname
- Bear Gulch Cave & Balconies Cave
- Cave type
- talus
- Tour length
- 1–2 hours through each cave system
- Formations
- Talus formations · Townsend's big-eared bat roost (Bear Gulch) · Cave moss and ferns · California condors visible from above
- Featured caves
- Bear Gulch Cave · Balconies Cave
- Intl tip
- Pinnacles is one of California's newest national parks (redesignated from national monument in 2013) and one of its least-visited — about 300,000 visitors per year compared to Yosemite's 4 million. The park's two sides (east and west entrances) are not connected by through-road — pick one side and commit. The east side has Bear Gulch Cave and the most popular hiking. The west side has Balconies Cave and less infrastructure.
The guide
Pinnacles' caves are unlike any other cave in California — not limestone, not lava tube, but talus caves formed when massive bo…
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