site: 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.