Saturday, March 10, 2018

Pinnacles National Park (Part 2) - California

On December 7th, 2017, I took my first ever trip to Pinnacles National Park in California. Exploring Bear Gulch Cave was amazing. The talus cave formations was really cool to see. I actually ended up taking a 2nd trip there taking cellphone photos only. You can view that here. I took quite a lot of photos at the park, so I'll be splitting the photos into 2 blog posts. Unlike other blog posts I post, I won't be including GPS information for most of the photos as my GPS was very unreliable and inaccurate in the caves and around the rock formations.

If you are planning on visiting the park and explore the talus caves, a flashlight (especially a bright headlamp) is definitely required. The caves are extremely dark in certain areas so you do not want to go in without one. Also note that most of the park is not handicap accessible. You have to get through a lot of tight squeezes especially in the caves. In Bear Gulch Cave, I had some areas I had to get down on all fours and crawl. Bringing a friend is definitely recommended as traveling alone in the wilderness is never safe.

A bit of history about the talus caves. The caves formed very very long ago when the area was geologically and volcanically active. The land (and rocks) broke apart into canyons. Over time, geological forces shifted the fault line and volcanoes elsewhere, small rocks fall to the bottom of the canyon and are weathered away, while big rocks get wedged between the cave walls forming these caves. Bats do hibernate in these caves and when they do, parts or all of the caves can be closed (they are also sometimes closed for storms when the caves can be flooded).

Full Resolution Photos: If you want to see full resolution photos of any of the photos you see here, use the following links. If you wish to purchase prints of any of the photos, please contact me here. To view my best Pinnacles National Park photos, use this link. To see my best monochrome and abstract photos for 2017, use this link. To see all of my photos from Pinnacles National Park, use this link.

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This is part 2 of my photos. There are some photos of scenery from the park and from Bear Gulch Cave and Bear Gulch Reservoir.

Rock formations inside Bear Gulch Cave. 

Black and white process of the photo above. 

Rock formations inside Bear Gulch Cave. 

 Black and white process of the photo above.


 HDR composition along Rim Trail near Bear Gulch Reservoir. The scenery and rock formations was right outside of Bear Gulch Cave.

HDR composition of Bear Gulch Reservoir shot on Chalone Peak Trail.

Scenery of Bear Gulch Reservoir shot on Chalone Peak Trail.
Approximate GPS location (type into Google): 36° 28' 21" N 121° 11' 15" W 

HDR composition from Chalone Peak Trail near Bear Gulch Reservoir.


Scenery of Bear Gulch Reservoir shot on Chalone Peak Trail.
Approximate GPS location (type into Google): 36° 28' 20" N 121° 11' 16" W 

Black and white process of the photo above. 

 HDR composition of Bear Gulch Reservoir.

Scenery of Bear Gulch Reservoir.
Approximate GPS location (type into Google): 36° 28' 20" N 121° 11' 17" W 

 Black and white process of the photo above.


Scenery of Bear Gulch Reservoir.
Approximate GPS location (type into Google): 36° 28' 20" N 121° 11' 18 W 

Scenery from Rim Trail.
Approximate GPS location (type into Google): 36° 28' 26" N 121° 11' 14" W 

 Black and white process of the photo above.


HDR composition from Rim Trail. 

Scenery from High Peaks Trail.
Approximate GPS location (type into Google): 36° 28' 38" N 121° 11' 11" W 

Black and white process of the photo above. 

HDR composition from the park.

This is all the photos for today and for this trip. I hope you have enjoyed the photos! Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family members! Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Instagram. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

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