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 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.