Pinnacles Campground

We camped here for 2 nights in July and it was hot! We were thankful for the nearby camp store for ice cream runs and the pool, which was a welcome surprise and refreshing after a hot, dusty hike.

The sites are adequately sized and ours had electricity. The downside is that the whole campground was quite open with not much shade. The bathrooms were clean though we never used their shower facilities, preferring to use our own shower.

One complaint we had was that the on-site dump station was locked and could only be accessed by first getting a key from the campstore attendant. The campstore didn't open until 8:30am/9am so you'll need to make other plans if you were hoping on driving out early at the crack of dawn.

We arrived with no reservations on a Sunday afternoon and we were able to have our choice of 20 sites or so for 2 nights. We were given a list and we were able to walk the campground and select our site. If you are able to do this, you will see some sites are WAY better then others.

Fortunately, we were traveling with friends who had a senior pass. We were able to share the site, since both our rigs would fit the space, which REALLY made our stay affordable, otherwise we would have paid $41 per night after fees and taxes for a dry site.

The shuttle was running on the weekend, but not during the week. We really enjoyed the hiking here. A bonus to hiking was that you were able to get cell reception on the upper trails.

Dump station was a bit of a hassle and the employee took her job very seriously. The dump station is only open certain hours and is locked. You must let them know in the office the approximate amount in your tanks that you will be dumping. Even though we were sharing a site with our friends, our friends could not hand the key off to us. We had to go into the office (and wait in line again) and have the employee give us the key. We get it, they need to know the approximate amount of gallons we were dumping, but couldn't we have told her our combined amount? Anyway, the dump station is only open during a certain time, you must go into the office, get the key and estimate how much you will be dumping, (technically lock it up) and return the key.

Basic RV spots with good sun, electric, and fine cell-crevice in much of the park. Amazing hikes, seriously, do yourself a favor and brave the high peaks trail and the Balconies cave. Well-stocked general store, and FREE blazing hot showers. There’s a pool here too, essential for late spring through fall when it is absolutely scorching here. Very quiet at night with great star gazing and tons of wildlife (deer, turkeys, condors, red shoulders hawks). Really an amazing natural wonder with very few people mid-Feb, mid-week. No shuttle running yet but you can hike right out of the campground, although it adds about 2 miles each way and is the least scenic part of the trail. Biking or driving to Bear Gulch is prob the best way to go

We booked on short notice. 109 was avail. Pretty obvious why. The site next door might as well have been in ours. Look at the map carefully. The inside loop sites around 109 are right on top of each other. I also thought the place was very overpriced. 55 a night in a Natl Park? Absolutely ZERO cell service. The showers were closed. One of the best viewpoints was closed. They charged way too much for the very limited wifi as well. The main reason I wont go back is the roads both coming up from the South or exiting to the North. They are extremely winding with little or no shoulder are VERY narrow. Its one thing to do this for a few miles but it was around 14 miles from the South and maybe 8 to 10 to the North. Way too stressful for me. No thanks. My price was with discount.

We tried camping here, based on the advertisement of wi-fi available throughout the campground. It is not at all true.

The campground wifi reaches to only the 2-3 sites nearest the camp store, and nowhere else. Furthermore, even parked right outside the store where the signal is strongest, it cuts in and out constantly, and is barely enough to send a text message.

If you're trying to work from the road, avoid this place like the plague.

Pinnacles Campground, run by a third party called the Pinnacles Recreation Company, is simply one of the nicer campgrounds you will find inside a National Park.

The wifi was very high-quality for campground standards. Wifi is generally unheard of inside a park boundary, and a robust and well-designed Wifi network at any campsite is rare.

Although crowded (as expected), the pool was a luxury in the summer heat. The water was cloudy but not all dirty, often a sign of insufficient water chemistry. I didn't test the water, but you know when it's not quite right as a pool owner.

Electricity was very clean and stable 30 amps. Also, generally rare inside National Parks (especially in California) made staying in the 90+ heat tolerable. We ran a 15k BTU AC nearly all day without issues.

The sites don't have water or sewage, but you probably know this. You can snag water at a nearby spigot. The flow was good, and the water seemed clean.

My only real complaint about this campground is that you can't use the dump station without a key, and you can't get the key until 9:30 am when the store opens. They say this is because the system is limited, and they need to carefully monitor how much is going in. I believe it, but it's still a limiting factor compared to any other National Park. Our plans did not allow us to wait till 9:30 am to leave the park.

101 is maybe one of the worst pads you can get in Loop d. Yes, it's long, and that's good for big rigs, but it is right on top of 99 with nothing but a marker on the ground to separate them, and you face right into two other sites, both 99 and 96 (which is a pull-through).

Most campgrounds with electricity will put people close together, and we should all know this, but 96, 99. 101, 102, and 103 are awkwardly set up to stare at each other. They also have no shade. They are best avoided.

This also explains why we could snag it relatively last minute, doing just fine in a pinch.

The outside loop sites all have potential depending on the tie of the day.

Take a good look at a satellite photo before you get too excited you can get a reservation.

I was very frustrated by the sheer number of great sites reserved and went vacant, or never used or reserved for RVs and were taken by tent campers.

This is something that you are not supposed to do, but they let it happen anyhow. I get it; we all want to get out. Demand is high, inventory is low.

The difference is I don't try and sneak into tent-only sites (not even with a tiny teardrop), hijacking what's already a limited number of places for RVers to go, and clearly stated as something you can't do.

Tent campers have a lot more choices of great sites that are more separated from the RV-powered pads. If you are a tent camper, you might really like this place if the weather (double-check, it's hotter than advertised) cooperates.

Pinnacles, the park, doesn't get a lot of attention for a reason. You can't drive through the park, which limits how much you can see and do. The campground is on the east side, which gives you some excellent hiking into some caves. We didn't have the time to drive around the park to see what the west side offered.

My partner and I joked we would start a company called Pinnacles PR Company to help them work on their "brand image."

This park deserves a bit more love than it gets. I'm also content to let it be what it is: a tiny beautiful gem inside our National Park system.