Condor Gulch

We drove up to the East side of Pinnacles National Park to do a hike in the morning as there was a heat advisory from noon to 5pm stating no hiking during those hours. We choose to hike up the Condor Gulch Trail: 3.4 miles round trip with 1,100 ft of gain. View as we were heading up the trail.

Lots of golden yellow landscapes

There are many gorgeous rock formations along this trail

A variety of shapes and colors

We were able to be in the shade most of our hike up, thanks to the beautiful trees.

Beautiful madrone tree

Views as we hike up the trail

Looking down into Condor Gulch from the viewpoint

Continuing up the trail

View to the east from near the end of our trail

view from the trail junction of Condor Gulch Trail with the Blue Oak Trail

We stopped and admired some of the rock formations on our hike back down the trail.

one of the smaller rock formations we saw today

lizard

one of the condors we saw soaring far above us

 

Fisher Point via Sandy's Canyon

This morning we drove out to the small parking area in front of Canyon Vista Campground, near Flagstaff, to hike to Fisher Point via Sandy's Canyon. Overall, we hiked 7 miles round trip with 280 ft loss/gain. We later saw there is a new, larger parking area about 0.5 mile away (closer to Fisher Point).

Part of our trail was also on the Arizona Trail.

View over looking Sandy's Canyon, the San Francisco Peaks in the far distance.

We had an early start to beat the heat, the moon was still up in the sky.

Large boulder along the trail.

Lovely rock formations as part of the canyon wall as we got closer to Fisher Point.

small cave at the base of Fisher Point

Beyond Fisher Point, we continued along this part of Walnut Canyon for about 0.75 mile

a niche in the canyon wall

inside the niche, it looks like a fire ring has been built

Further along we found a larger cave.

The cave narrowed inside,

and narrowed even further, a thin person could fit, but I could not.

Looking our from the front of the cave.

More interesting rock formations along the canyon walls as we continued hiking up the canyon.

walnut trees in the canyon

back at Fisher Point

some of the wildflowers we saw along the trail today: