Pinnacles
National Monument in California was signed into law as the United States' 59th
and newest national park, now bearing the name Pinnacles National Park.
The
new park, with its spectacular
rock formations, beautiful spring wildflowers and group of endangered
condors, is a popular tourist attraction, located in the Gabilan Mountains east
of central California's Salinas Valley, according to a statement from the
Department of the Interior. The park encompasses 27,000 acres of wild lands.
The
stunning rock formations, called pinnacles and from which the park gets its
name, are the remnants of half an ancient volcano, worn down by erosion over
the eons. The matching half of the volcano lies 195 miles (314 kilometers) to
the southeast, on the other side of the San Andreas Fault. (The 1976 discovery
that the halves were connected showed the degree of offset along the fault.)
Posts
