Pinnacles National Park
Viewing Scopes
Viewing Scopes
|
National Monument
1908 National Park 2012 Park Size 26,600 acres Annual Visitors 341,000 Park Fee $30 Superintendent Blanca Alvarez Stransky Park Partner Pinnacles National Park Foundation Location San Benito and Monterey Counties, CA |
Pinnacles National Park protects some of the most remarkable landscapes in Central California. The park is the site of unusual volcanic spires that give the park its name and also includes talus caves, oak and chaparral woodlands, plus one of the largest populations of endangered condors in the west.
While many come to hike and get close to the remote features, for many visitors, the vistas are limited to what can be seen from the developed areas of the park. The Pinnacles and condors are visible from both sides of the park but they are at some distance, especially the condors, whose roosting sites and flyways are high above the campgrounds and roads. The Fund for People in Parks provided a grant to purchase and install four new viewing scopes in the two developed parts of the park. The scopes were installed in 2015 and have provided thousands of visitors with the awesome opportunity of seeing high-flying condors and the remote Pinnacles right up close. Project Cost: $9,000 Project Completed: 2015 You don't have to be an avid bird-watcher to appreciate the diversity of birds at Pinnacles, especially for that charged moment when you realize you've spotted a highly rare California condor suspended on a thermal draft. There are two spotting scopes in the campground (on the Bench Trail near Pinnacles Visitor Center) that may help you get a closer look." |
