Balconies Cave Trail

The Balconies Cave Trail loops through one of two talus caves in Pinnacles National Park, formed not by water erosion but by massive rhyolite boulders that tumbled off canyon walls and bridged the narrow creek bed below. The cave passage extends roughly a quarter mile through total darkness, requiring a headlamp or flashlight to navigate the scrambles over boulders and through low passages where the ceiling drops to three feet. Townsend's big-eared bats roost in the cave in large numbers — the park is one of the most important bat habitats in California, and the cave closes entirely during maternity season if disturbance is detected. Emerging from the cave's upper entrance into daylight reveals the monolithic volcanic columns of the Balconies, jagged rhyolite formations that are the eroded remnant of an ancient volcano that was once located 195 miles southeast near Lancaster, California, and carried to its present position over 23 million years by movement along the San Andreas Fault. The loop returns via the Balconies Cliffs Trail with views back across the cave's boulder-choked entrance canyon.