In commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act, consider these words by Kenneth Brower, son of the Club’s first executive director, David Brower:
“Wilderness is where we come from. Homo sapiens evolved as hunter-gatherers in the wilderness of Mother Africa; we are adapted to the rigors and beauties of wild landscape. Fire, agriculture, the wheel—those things came very late. The Bronze, Industrial, Atomic, Space, and Digital Ages are just recent blips in human history, adding only the thinnest of veneers to who we are. We came out of the African savanna fully formed in our intelligence and basic sensibilities. Wilderness is home.
“Wilderness is not dispensable. It’s what reminds us of who we are. Without wilderness, Gerard Piel said, we are, in a deeply terrifying sense, on our own.”
Pinnacles National Park—an overlooked gem
by Hal Smith
In his most recent epic, a 14-hour “intimate history” of the Roosevelts, filmmaker Ken Burns reminds us that one of the nation’s most effective advocates of wilderness was a politician.
New York Governor Teddy Roosevelt loved blood sports and combat, and was something of an imperialist, but he was also a progressive who saved the Adirondacks and established the idea of national parks when he became president. Has any American met a national park they didn’t like? What better way to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act than to visit a national park?
Technically, the newest one is Pinnacles NP, east of the Salinas Valley in central California’s Monterey County. TR declared Pinnacles a national monument in 1908; it was designated America’s 59th national park last year by President Obama.
At about 25 square miles, more than half of which is designated wilderness, Pinnacles is a small park but it has several distinctive features. It is one of only three sites in the nation where endangered California condors are released into the wild and, with a little luck, birders can add one of the park’s approximately 30 nesting condors to their life lists. These birds have been soaring above the Earth since the Ice Age but they face extinction now from lead poisoning and other hazards of civilization.
While visitors aren’t guaranteed to spot a condor, it’s impossible to miss the park’s stunning rock formations, for which the park is named. Its monoliths, pinnacles, canyons and spires are remnants of a volcano that was split in two by a tectonic shift along the San Andreas Fault 23 million years ago. That left the other half of the formation 195 miles southeast, on the other side of the fault.
Pinnacles National Park is one of the best and most accessible places to explore tunnel-like talus caves. These are created by massive rocks that have fallen into narrow ravines or piled up at the base of cliffs, creating ceilings and passages under a jumbled roof of massive rubble. This provides habitat for bats as well as the San Francisco-area Soft Adventure Enthusiast, a thriving species who explore the caves with flashlights. It’s literally a cool place for novice spelunkers, supervised kids and even for over-the-hill travel writers, provided they are not claustrophobic.
Young and more daring climbers scale the above-ground cliffs and pinnacles. Some of the most traveled vertical routes were made safer by early climbers, who pounded anchor bolts into the rock walls. These Pinnacles pioneers included distinguished environmental activist and mountaineer David Brower, the Sierra Club’s first executive director and founder of other groups, including Friends of the Earth and the League of Conservation Voters.
More down-to-earth explorers will discover something remarkable among the park’s abundant spring wildflowers. Pinnacles supports the highest known bee diversity, per unit area, of any place on Earth. Most of us are familiar only with honeybees and bumblebees, but those two species comprise less than two percent of almost 400 bee species in the park.
These wondrous bees are metallic green or blue, brown, bronze and black, and some are as big as a peanut shell or as small as a mosquito. We all know bees as collaborative hive builders, but most of Pinnacles’ bees are solitary and the females build their own nests. Although the variety of bees is very large, there’s no need for park visitors to worry about them. Most of the bees are active for only about two months of the nine-month season. Also, they coexist, in sustainable numbers, by chronologically being active at staggered times, foraging only when their favorite flowers are in bloom.
The spring wildflowers, especially in prime years, attract plenty of weekend visitors, too. That’s the only time of the year when the park is crowded. But summers are very hot (more than 100°F), and only experienced hikers should be active under such conditions.
The park, far from urban light pollution, is a splendid place for astronomy programs, full-moon walks and bat viewings on selected Friday and Saturday nights spring through fall. It’s best to make reservations for these (831-389-4486, ext. 243).
In the volcanic rock areas of the park, the dominant habitat is chaparral, primarily shrubby flora that have adapted to dry summers, rocky soil and periodic fires. But woodlands, grasslands, and creeks, which have been protected for more than 100 years, host a wide variety of native vegetation. Its ecological niches also make Pinnacles a refuge for many native reptiles and birds as well. So whether you are fascinated by birds, bees and bats, or stars and condors, the park’s microclimates and spectacular topography are bound to make a lasting impression.
Of course, it’s a long way from New York to Pinnacles—you may require more to lure you to California. Consider these other attractions in Monterey County:
· Although California’s vineyards in Sonoma and Napa counties are well known, the vintners in the highlands of the Santa Lucia and Gabilan mountains, above the Salinas Valley, are coming on strong, especially with their Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes. In fact, the Inn at Pinnacles, a luxurious hilltop B&B overlooking the owners’ vineyard, is near thewest entrance to Pinnacles.
· The Elkorn Slough is one of the largest areas of undisturbed wetlands remaining in California. Its 3,000 acres of marshes and tidal flats are part of the National Estuarine Reserve system and part of the Pacific Flyway. At the Moss Landing harbor, you can rent kayaks or take an open pontoon boat tour of the slough, which is teeming with life, from harbor seals, sea lions, and sea otters, to brown pelicans, least terns and peregrine falcons.
· The Salinas Valley, “the world’s salad bowl,” is the richest farmland in the country and has the longest growing season in the world. It produces, for example, 85 percent of the world’s strawberries. An acre sells for $38,000! Agricultural tours provide insight into the failures and successes of farming in America, the state’s water crisis, immigration policy, food safety, etc.
· Salinas, the county seat of Monterey County, is the small town made famous by native son John Steinbeck. The town has established an engaging museum about the writer who won the Nobel and Pulitzer prizes for exposing the exploitation of migrant workers. But the town that once burned his books now honors him at the Steinbeck Center, the largest literary museum in the country.
· Monterey Bay is an excellent place for whale-watching and has one of the finest aquariums in the U.S. It was built on Cannery Row where, ironically, industrialized fishing nearly wiped out the bay fishery before Steinbeck and his friend, Ed Ricketts, a pioneering marine biologist, collaborated on work that influenced several generations’ thinking about marine ecology.
Hal Smith, a member of the Susquehanna Group, is editor of the Sierra Atlantic and a freelance writer.