We drove up to the West side of Pinnacles National Park to hike the Balconies Cliffs-Balconies Cave Loop (2.5 miles with 400 ft of gain) before the temperatures got too hot to hike. View form the parking area.
We watched the moon set to the west as we began our hike.
We were dwarfed by the boulders that were below Machete Ridge.
The trail goes through many gorgeous rock formations.
Machete Ridge
We took our time in the coolness of the morning, while the sun was still low in the sky.
On reaching the loop, we opted to go clockwise, going up the Balconies Cliff Trail before returning via the Balconies Cave Trail
View of Machete Ridge from the other end.
Heading down the Balconies Cave Trail.
We followed this rock steps up towards the Cave
view through the trees
The cave entrance is in the opening at the bottom of the photo
cave entrance
Some areas of the cave were light with sky lights, other ares we need our headlamps
We would go up over some boulders,
go down over other boulders,
crawl under several boulders,
and squeeze past some boulders.
view through a sky hole
cave exit
There was a narrow passageway after exiting the cave.
Back out in the open.
Some more views as we meandered back to the trailhead.
Lovely large oak tree
We heeded the sign, it was already 85F at 10am when we returned to the trailhead.
We drove up to the West side of Pinnacles National Park to hike the Balconies Cliffs-Balconies Cave Loop (2.5 miles with 400 ft of gain) before the temperatures got too hot to hike. View form the parking area.
We watched the moon set to the west as we began our hike.
We were dwarfed by the boulders that were below Machete Ridge.
The trail goes through many gorgeous rock formations.
Machete Ridge 
We took our time in the coolness of the morning, while the sun was still low in the sky.
On reaching the loop, we opted to go clockwise, going up the Balconies Cliff Trail before returning via the Balconies Cave Trail
View of Machete Ridge from the other end.
We followed this rock steps up towards the Cave
view through the trees
The cave entrance is in the opening at the bottom of the photo
cave entrance
Some areas of the cave were light with sky lights, other ares we need our headlamps
We would go up over some boulders,
go down over other boulders,
crawl under several boulders,
and squeeze past some boulders.
view through a sky hole
cave exit
There was a narrow passageway after exiting the cave.
Back out in the open.
Some more views as we meandered back to the trailhead.
Lovely large oak tree
We heeded the sign, it was already 85F at 10am when we returned to the trailhead.
