Pinnacles National Monument is one of the post-prototype parks in the NPS Western Region selected for mapping. Pinnacles National Monument includes parts of Monterey and San Benito Counties. It has a total area of 27,095 acres. The survey area straddles the county line between Monterey and San Benito Counties about 23 miles southeast of Salinas, California.
Elevation ranges from 824 to 3,304 feet It is a rugged to rolling mountain environment with many canyons and several stream valleys with varied geology from volcanic (including ash, breccia, rhyolite) to granitic and alluvial surfaces.
National monuments are among the most sensitive and protected natural areas in America. The Access Fund, Friends Of Pinnacles and the National Park Service urge you to climb safely and "Leave No Trace" -- at Pinnacles and in all other climbing areas in our National Park System.
The vegetation types include riparian woodlands, oak woodlands, wetlands, grasslands, cryptogams, chaparral and coastal sage scrub.
Pinnacles National Monument was created by the National Park Service on January 16, 1908. The Park occupies about 26,000 acres of land in the Gabilan Range of central California. Over 16,000 acres of the Park is set aside as designated wilderness. The Park functions as a regional recreation area. Visitors to the Park may hike on trails, climb rock walls, explore the talus caves or use the campground and picnic facilities.
During summer months, when stream flow diminishes or ceases altogether, standing pools often persist late into the season, creating ideal habitat for breeding populations of many amphibians.
The Pinnacles National Monument project study area contains three main ecologic or geomorphologic areas: • Region 1 - The West
• Region 2 - The Northeast
• Region 3 – The South
The West can be divided into four sub-areas: the Pinnacle Rocks, the West slope of the Chalone Peaks/Pinnacle Rocks, Gloria Valley and the Southwest Hills of the Expanded Area. Of the three regions, the West is most affected by the fog that moves in from the west.
The Pinnacle Rocks are a series of very large jagged irregular volcanic rock outcrops, towers and pinnacles running in a general northeast to southwest trend. The rock faces have little to no vascular vegetation.
The Northeast can be divided into six sub-areas: Bickmore Canyon, the Northeast Dry Chaparral, the Highway 25 Corridor, Old Pinnacles Mixed Chaparral, North Chalone Creek and Bear Gulch-Bear Valley.
The South is divided into four sub-areas: the Mount Defiance-Frog Creek area, the Far South, South Chalone Creek and the Eastern Extension.
The history of land use within the Upper Chalone Creek Watershed predates the period commonly known as “historical” (1769 to present), although most anthropogenic impacts are typically and mistakenly associated only with the historic period. This part of California has been occupied by humans for at least 10,000 years, possibly longer. Sometime between 2,000 and 3,000 years ago, the ancestors of the present Ohlone Indians migrated into California’s central coast region, bringing with them new technologies which included the processing and storage of durable grains and nuts, especially acorns, which became a staple of their civilization. These innovation allowed them to evolve a complex social structure which was capable of supporting a relatively large population.
Pinnacles National Monument explores the formation of these unique geologic formations: how scientists surmise the Pinnacles area has been carried 195 miles north of its original location by the inexorable creep of the earth’s tectonic plates. The ancient volcano was split in half; remains can still be found in southern California’s Neenach Formation. Erosion’s slow sculpting of the rocks resulted in the landforms we see today.
