Pinnacles West

Pinnacles National Park – West side

  • Visitors, including astronomers, must pay day use fees (unless you have a national park pass). Fees are currently $30 for a vehicle.

  • West side entrance has an automatic gate that closes to incoming traffic at 8pm, but allows leaving at any time.

  • Directions: Take US 101 south to Soledad, take highway 146 to Pinnacles.

  • https://www.nps.gov/pinn/planyourvisit/maps.htm is a handy map for the whole park.

  • Setup areas on west side include the parking lot near the Visitors Center, as well as the Chaparral Trailhead at the end of the road.

  • GPS Coordinates of Visitor Contact Station Parking: 36.478179, -121.226261 Elevation: ca 2,000 ft.

  • Access is from Soledad on highway 101, take state route 146 to the park.

  • Stay away from the Visitor Contact Station building after dark, it has some blindingly bright motion sensor floodlamps that won’t shut off for 20 minutes.

  • No sleeping or camping anywhere on the west side of the park.
  • While observing equipment may be set up on the asphalt (not in the dirt), there may not be any obstruction of vehicles driving through the parking lot.
  • Visitors must comply with any request to move equipment so that the drive-through path is not obstructed.