Hiking · Pinnacles National Park, California, USA · recorded with NomadTracks

Pinnacles High Peaks loop: 12 km among the condor spires

Pinnacles is what's left of an ancient volcano that drifted 300 km up the San Andreas fault — and the High Peaks loop threads right through its teeth: 12.1 km, 574 m of climbing, with stairways blasted into the rock and California condors riding the thermals overhead.

Distance12.1 km
Elevation gain574 m
ActivityHiking
Duration3 h 12 min

About this data: this track and its photos were personally shared with us as samples by a NomadTracks user. NomadTracks never uploads, collects or shares your tracks or photos — your recordings stay on your devices and in your own cloud.

Route map of Pinnacles High Peaks loop: 12 km among the condor spires drawn from the recorded GPS points on an OpenStreetMap basemap
The actual recorded GPS track — start marked green, finish orange. Numbered pins mark where the photos below were taken.

Download GPX Coordinates, elevation and relative times — recording dates are normalized out, photos not included.

Elevation profile of the track
Elevation profile over the full distance. Switch the map above to interactive mode, then slide across the chart — a marker follows the route.

The steep-and-narrow section

The heart of the loop is a stretch of carved steps and railings through the spires themselves. The elevation chart shows it as a brief, sharp sawtooth — short meters, long memories.

Heat math

Pinnacles bakes from late spring on. The recorded pace chart makes the planning honest: the same loop that takes three hours in February is a five-hour water-hauling exercise in July.

About the place: Pinnacles National Park, California, USA

Pinnacles National Park in central California protects the eroded remains of an ancient volcano carried 300 km north along the San Andreas fault. The High Peaks loop threads the spires on stairways cut in the 1930s, and the park is a release site of the California Condor Recovery Program — check the thermals above the ridge. Spring wildflower season is the sweet spot; summers are brutally hot.

Volcanic rock spires of the High Peaks in Pinnacles National Park
1 · Volcanic rock spires of the High Peaks in Pinnacles National Park
Pinnacle towers rising over the chaparral hills
2 · Pinnacle towers rising over the chaparral hills
Hazy morning sun over the Pinnacles ridgelines
3 · Hazy morning sun over the Pinnacles ridgelines
Panorama across the spire field of the High Peaks loop
4 · Panorama across the spire field of the High Peaks loop
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