Bear Gulch-High Peaks Loop
Trail photos
Author
Trail stats
- Distance
- 6.15 mi
- Elevation gain
- 1,923 ft
- Technical difficulty
- Moderate
- Elevation loss
- 1,923 ft
- Max elevation
- 2,523 ft
- TrailRank
-
59
4.3
- Min elevation
- 1,160 ft
- Trail type
- Loop
- Moving time
- 2 hours 57 minutes
- Time
- 3 hours 56 minutes
- Coordinates
- 1754
- Uploaded
- August 19, 2021
- Recorded
- August 2021
near Pinnacles, California (United States)
Viewed 196 times, downloaded 12 times
Trail photos
Itinerary description
Parked at Bear Gulch Day Use area, where there was plenty of parking, regular bathrooms, small picnic area, and water filling station. Started a little after 7:30am to do a clockwise loop (Moses Spring, Bear Gulch Cave, Bear Gulch Reservoir, Rim, High Peaks, and back via Condor Gulch. It was foggy and in the low 50s, but the sun was a beautiful red, hidden behind the fog. From the parking lot, I took the trail headed towards the reservoir. There's another parking lot with restrooms nearby at Moses Spring parking, which also has a bunch of picnic tables along the way. The cave surprisingly had almost 150 stairs in it, with a few more once you exit, flashlight required. There are a lot of rock climbing routes along the way, but the trails are well marked. The High Peaks trail has some spectacular views and there were lots of condors and vultures right before the Steep and Narrow Section. There are handrails and steps carved into the rock where it's steep, but obviously can only accommodate one way traffic. The Condor Gulch trail has an overlook/viewpoint, but I didn't see any condors on that trail. Fairly easy trail, but my pace was slower as I stopped to talk to other hikers and one of them joined me for a large section of the trail.
Waypoints
Car park
Information point
Tunnel
Intersection
Photo
1,495 ft
Photo
Comments (1)
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Information
Easy to follow
Scenery
Moderate
Really nice walk, with a fair bit of variety and none of the path is too steep (although the part through the 'steep and narrow section' may not suit those suffering from vertigo). We did it clockwise, which meant an early decision on whether to include the Bear Gulch Cave extension, and we opted out of this as we weren't sure we had time. Next time we'd do it anti-clockwise, and could then decide on the cave later on in the walk. Started at 10am, midweek, no problem parking. Overall 2 hours 45 mins, including 30 mins of stops to look at the view, take photos, spot condors, chat to others etc.