Parking
Enter from CA-25 on Pinnacles East Entrance Road and continue to Pinnacles Campground. Bench Trailhead is at the campground’s far end. Parking capacity for this access is not published.
Overview
About Campground to Balconies Cave
Why go
- Pairs a dark cave passage with a cliffside return.
- A relatively gentle climb for a full half-day hike.
Heads up
- The long approach has little shade and no trail water.
- The cave is rough underfoot and may flood after winter rain.
Campground to Balconies Cave is a 9.4-mile round trip from Bench Trailhead at the far end of Pinnacles Campground. Follow Bench and Old Pinnacles west along Chalone Creek, pass through the talus cave, loop back over Balconies Cliffs, then retrace the same lower-valley approach. Plan on 4 to 6 hours; it is rated moderate. The payoff is a cave passage and views of Pinnacles’ layered formations without the sustained climb to High Peaks. This is a half-day walk, not a quick cave stop.
Parkwolf’s verdictIs this hike for you?Map & elevation
The route
Loading the Pinnacles map
Full mapElevation984–1,453 ft
Plan your hike
Before you go
Parking
Safety
2 active Pinnacles alerts
- CautionVery high fire danger restrictionsVery high fire danger is active at Pinnacles; follow these restrictions to reduce wildfire risk. - Do not use wood-burning fires or charcoal grills.Official details
- CautionHot conditions and heat alertHot conditions and a heat alert are active at Pinnacles; limit strenuous hiking to early morning and late evening and prepare for extreme heat.Official details
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Pinnacles Tour Guide
Your drive to Campground to Balconies Cave, narrated.
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Pinnacles National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
Recorded for this trailhead
Bench Trail from the Campground0:00 / 0:22
“Bench Trailhead at the far end of Pinnacles Campground is coming up. For a lower-valley walk, follow Bench and Sycamore trails toward Bear Gulch, through western sycamores and bird habitat.”
Plays as you drive up to this trailhead in the Parkwolf Pinnacles Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- Bacon Ranch and Early Park Visitors
- Peaks View Picnic Stop
- Pinnacles Campground, Stores and Picnic Grove
- North Chalone Peak via Bear Gulch
- 12 audio storiesacross Pinnacles’s roads, triggered by GPS as you drive
- Wildlife heatmapsfor California Condor, Mule Deer, Chipmunk, and 13 more
- Works offlinemaps, 25 trails, 23 places, and audio download before you lose signal
- CarPlay readysimple controls built for the drive
“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
Trail guide
Hiking Campground to Balconies Cave
The walk westBench and Old Pinnacles follow the lower Chalone Creek corridor through open, sunny grassland.
Bench and Old Pinnacles follow the lower Chalone Creek corridor through open, sunny grassland. Expect dirt and rock underfoot, with little shade; the trail is about 2 to 4 feet wide. Machete Ridge rises above the route as you get closer to Balconies. The creek corridor does not mean water is available: there is no drinking water along the trail.
Through the cave and back over the cliffsThe cave is a dark passage between large boulders, with low ceilings and uneven, sometimes…
The cave is a dark passage between large boulders, with low ceilings and uneven, sometimes slippery footing. Bring a flashlight or headlamp. After winter rain, water may remain in the passage, requiring a wade, and flooding can temporarily close it. On the return, Balconies Cliffs crosses above the cave and opens views of the park’s largest rock formations; that stretch has no shade. Then follow the same Bench and Old Pinnacles corridor back to camp. Look up inside the cave for wedged blocks and small openings where daylight slips through.
A cave made by fallen bouldersBalconies is a talus cave, not a hollow dissolved out of bedrock.
Balconies is a talus cave, not a hollow dissolved out of bedrock. Large boulders fell into a narrow, fractured gorge and lodged against one another, leaving passages beneath them. Water, wind and frost have also worn Pinnacles’ volcanic rock into the layered cliffs and spires around the route.
A piece of a much larger volcanoPinnacles is part of an ancient volcanic field that formed about 23 million years ago near…
Pinnacles is part of an ancient volcanic field that formed about 23 million years ago near present-day Lancaster. Movement along the San Andreas Fault carried the park’s portion roughly 195 miles north. The rock formations you see here are the weathered remains of that journey, shaped further by erosion.
Bats in the cracksSeveral bat species use the park’s caves.
Several bat species use the park’s caves. Balconies Cave is a known roost for solitary male bats tucked into small cracks, away from disturbance. Pass through carefully and leave the boulders and crevices alone.
Is this hike for you?Start at the east-side campground, reached from CA-25 via Pinnacles East Entrance Road.
Start at the east-side campground, reached from CA-25 via Pinnacles East Entrance Road. There is a park entrance fee but no separate hike fee or reservation. Dogs are prohibited on park trails; service animals are allowed. A short section of Bench Trail may be wheelchair accessible, but the cave route as a whole has uneven, slippery rock. For a shorter cave outing, the 5.3-mile round trip from Old Pinnacles Trailhead skips much of the campground approach.
Wildlife
Wildlife in Pinnacles
47 sightingsCalifornia CondorMost seen around 1 PMSighting map
26 sightingsMule DeerMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
19 sightingsChipmunkMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
33 sightingsTurkey VultureMost seen around noonSighting map
26 sightingsAcorn WoodpeckerMost seen around 8 AMSighting map
16 sightingsSteller's JayMost seen around 8 AMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Pinnacles. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
