California condors may have a face only a mother could love, but you can’t deny these iconic, critically-endangered birds are fascinating and definitely majestic while soaring over the Pinnacles landscape with outstretched wings reaching a span of up to nine feet (2.7 meters) tip-to-tip.
California condor close-up, Pinnacles National Park / NPS file
According to park staff:
Since 2003, Pinnacles National Park has been a key partner in the California Condor Recovery Program, serving as a release and management site. The park co-manages all wild condors in central California alongside the Ventana Wildlife Society.
A group of California condors at Pinnacles National Park / NPS-Gavin Emmons
In 2023, Traveler correspondent Lori Sonken and a friend traveled to Pinnacles National Park searching for condors.
When I hiked at Grand Canyon National Park in January, I never spotted a California condor, but Pinnacles National Park, the first national park where the birds bred in captivity were released into the wild, raised my hopes again of seeing these magnificent birds. Even if I missed them, I could wander the 30 miles of trails through rolling hills and chaparral past steep rocky outcroppings and into caves.
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