Visit Pinnacles Overlook

Although Pinnacles Overlook is part of the Crater Lake National Park and has a geological relationship with the lake, it is a unique feature on its own. Pinnacles Overlook is located several miles southeast of Crater Lake. (Crater Lake itself is located about 80 miles from Medford, Oregon, in south-central Oregon.) Unfortunately, the road to Pinnacles Overlook is the same road you have to use when you leave Pinnacles Overlook. You have to want to see the pinnacles and pay the price in terms of retracing your route.

Given all of that, the pinnacles are worth the drive. My wife and I saw them as part of a major trip to the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It was our first trip to that part of the country and, not knowing if and when we would ever return, we wanted to pack everything possible into that trip. As a result, we made a point of seeing the pinnacles.

First, let me define "pinnacle." In our common language, to reach the pinnacle of something (or as some of you old-timers may remember comedian Norm Crosby saying, to reach the "pinochle") is to reach the top. Strange as it may sound, in geological language, a pinnacle is actually a "hoodoo," which is defined as "a fantastic column or pillar of rock." (See page 236 in Volcanoes in America's National Parks by Robert and Barbara Decker [Reference information is below]). The pinnacles are formed as volcanic deposits and lava flows slowly cool. Steam from the volcanic layers escapes upward through openings called "fumaroles" and, in the process, causes a hardening of the pumice and ashes through which it travels. These areas are harder than the surrounding layers of volcanic debris. In the following years, wind, water, and gravity erosion carves away the softer areas and leave formations called "pinnacles." According to an informational sign at the overlook, the pinnacles basically mimic the shape of the fumaroles through which the steam traveled. (See attached picture.)

Probably the most extensive collection of hoodoos or pinnacles in the United States can be found in either Chiricahua National Monument in Arizona or Pinnacles National Monument in California. In Chiricahua, the visitor can see pinnacles stretching for miles. A unique feature of Pinnacles National Monument in California is that the volcano that created the area grew on top of the San Andreas Fault. Through sideways action over centuries, the fault split the volcano in half. The larger part is now in Pinnacles National Monument. The other part is 200 miles south near Lancaster, CA. (Decker, page 237) Such is the power of nature!

If you have the time to travel to Chiricahua or Pinnacles, either one would be the best opportunity to see the geological pinnacles on a large scale. However, if you are going to visit Crater Lake anyway, you can "taste-test" pinnacles by taking the extra time to drive to Pinnacles Overlook.

The pinnacles are just one more proof of the volcanic origin of much of the United States. We should probably appreciate what we have when we have it. Who knows how long it will be until the next eruption of a volcano and the major alteration of the landscape that will result?

Source:

Robert and Barbara Decker, Volcanoes in America's National Parks (Odyssey Books: Hong Kong, 2007)