Post by jonsdigs on Oct 31, 2006 19:47:35 GMT -5
PINNACLES NATIONAL MONUMENT
The perfect week for a visit to nature's creepiest
San Francisco Chronicle
Steve Rubenstein, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
(10-31) 04:00 PST Pinnacles National Monument, San Benito County -- Bats, which get a real bum rap on Halloween and have a pretty tough time of it the rest of the year, are fighting back this week at the Pinnacles.
It's still tough to be a bat. You have to catch a few thousand mosquitoes every night using only your ears, then sleep upside down while hanging from the ceiling. But things are looking up at the Pinnacles these days.
Bat fans for miles around are rushing down to the park's famous bat cave because, for a few precious days a year, the cave is open to the public and now is the time. Time, like a bat, flies.
Just don't wear your good pants.
"Bats are pretty incredible,'' said park ranger Brant Porter, leading the evening bat hike through Bear Gulch Cave. "This is really special. You're lucky. You should feel very privileged.''
With a buildup like that, a bat fan doesn't mind ripping his pants on the rocks and bumping his head on the low overhangs, which is what happens to visitors during the one week or so each year when the entire cave is open to the public.
Most of the year, the upper half of the cave is closed to ensure the privacy of a small but determined colony of rare Townsend's big-eared bats, which has doubled in size to about 400 bats since the park began keeping people out of the cave a decade ago.
But for a couple of weeks a year, the bats leave the cave and then the humans can come in with their bright flashlights and their noisy chatter and their crinkly candy wrappers and all the other things that bats, in their ignorance, haven't learned to appreciate. Nobody knows where the bats hang during those precious weeks, besides upside down.
The other evening, the sunset bat hike was fully subscribed. There was a waiting list. The bat cave, even without bats, was the toughest ticket in town.
What happens on a bat cave hike is that a couple of dozen people tie flashlights to their foreheads and crawl on their hands and knees through the soggy cave in the pitch dark, bumping the aforementioned body parts. All the while, the ranger keeps reminding hikers how lucky they are.
"This is a fantastic place to be a bat,'' Porter said, while the visitors paused in the middle of the cave to ponder just how fantastic it was, and to rub their bumped heads.
Bear Gulch is a talus cave, which means that it is formed by giant wedged-together rocks that look like they could come crashing down on visitors at any moment, another plus for the Halloween season.
The Townsend bat, said Porter, isn't endangered but is rare enough in California to be a "species of special concern.''
At every rest stop, Porter took the opportunity to counter the Halloween, Hollywood and Gotham City bat myths, which were almost too overwhelming for one ranger in a Smokey Bear hat to deal with. Bats, he said, are mammals, like their human visitors. They are just trying to bring their kids up in a scary world full of great horned owls while making sure none of them drops from the cave ceiling into the guano pit, from which no bat ever returns.
Bats eat mosquitoes, which is good. Bats are kind of cute, which is good. Bats are the only mammals that can fly, and bats do not attack people and drink their blood, which is something that Hollywood popularized to sell tickets to mediocre movies and other events that are not nearly as well attended as bat hikes.
The path through the bat cave is marked with white arrows. Porter, winding his way through the maze, said the bats have a very sensible arrangement at Bear Gulch Cave. Only females and babies are allowed inside, and the males have to live in a cave of their own somewhere else. Countless ages ago, the females figured out that they need the males for only one thing, and not too often at that.
A bat cave, even without bats, is worth a look. The place is naturally spooky, without any special effects or B-movie dialogue. The place speaks to the wonders of geology and fresh flashlight batteries and, on this particular night, drew bat cave fans from as far away as North Carolina.
"It's dark and scary, and I bumped my head,'' said Ed Hansen, who had journeyed from Los Angeles with his 14-year-old daughter, Megan, when he heard the bat cave was open. "But it's worth it. You have to do things like this.''
At the far end of the cave, the group emerged at spectacular Bear Gulch Reservoir at sunset, just in time to see other species of park bats swoop down for an evening drink and some tasty mosquitoes. Bats and mosquitoes have been getting together at sunset for millions of years, and bats must eat their entire body weight in mosquitoes every night or perish from hunger.
"It's hard work to be a bat,'' Porter said, and he led the group down the hill, through the magnificent Pinnacles rock formations, beneath the stars and back to what passes for civilization among a species that has a lot to learn from the creatures of the night.
Bear Gulch Cave at the Pinnacles
The cave where Townsend's big-eared bats hang out will be open through Wednesday.
Here's an annual schedule:*
October
The entire cave is open for at least a week, usually the last week of the month.
Nov. 1 - end of February
The lower half of the cave may be open.
March
The lower half of the cave may be open for the full month. The entire cave is open for at least a week, usually the last week of the month.
April 1 - mid-May
The lower half of the cave may be open.
Mid-July - Sept. 30
The lower half of the cave may be open.
* Dates may change if the colony of bats changes its breeding patterns or shows signs of disturbance.
Source: National Park Service
The Chronicle
If you go
Bear Gulch Cave is fully open only until Wednesday. It's about a 2-mile round-trip walk from the Bear Gulch Visitor Center, which is accessible only from the east entrance of the Pinnacles National Monument, south of Hollister via Highway 25 in San Benito County. Admission to Pinnacles National Monument is $5 per car; admission to the visitor center and cave is free. Cave visitors should bring flashlights and sturdy shoes. For information, call (831) 389-4485 or visit www.nps.gov/pinn.
article
E-mail Steve Rubenstein at srubenstein@sfchronicle.com.
The perfect week for a visit to nature's creepiest
San Francisco Chronicle
Steve Rubenstein, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
(10-31) 04:00 PST Pinnacles National Monument, San Benito County -- Bats, which get a real bum rap on Halloween and have a pretty tough time of it the rest of the year, are fighting back this week at the Pinnacles.
It's still tough to be a bat. You have to catch a few thousand mosquitoes every night using only your ears, then sleep upside down while hanging from the ceiling. But things are looking up at the Pinnacles these days.
Bat fans for miles around are rushing down to the park's famous bat cave because, for a few precious days a year, the cave is open to the public and now is the time. Time, like a bat, flies.
Just don't wear your good pants.
"Bats are pretty incredible,'' said park ranger Brant Porter, leading the evening bat hike through Bear Gulch Cave. "This is really special. You're lucky. You should feel very privileged.''
With a buildup like that, a bat fan doesn't mind ripping his pants on the rocks and bumping his head on the low overhangs, which is what happens to visitors during the one week or so each year when the entire cave is open to the public.
Most of the year, the upper half of the cave is closed to ensure the privacy of a small but determined colony of rare Townsend's big-eared bats, which has doubled in size to about 400 bats since the park began keeping people out of the cave a decade ago.
But for a couple of weeks a year, the bats leave the cave and then the humans can come in with their bright flashlights and their noisy chatter and their crinkly candy wrappers and all the other things that bats, in their ignorance, haven't learned to appreciate. Nobody knows where the bats hang during those precious weeks, besides upside down.
The other evening, the sunset bat hike was fully subscribed. There was a waiting list. The bat cave, even without bats, was the toughest ticket in town.
What happens on a bat cave hike is that a couple of dozen people tie flashlights to their foreheads and crawl on their hands and knees through the soggy cave in the pitch dark, bumping the aforementioned body parts. All the while, the ranger keeps reminding hikers how lucky they are.
"This is a fantastic place to be a bat,'' Porter said, while the visitors paused in the middle of the cave to ponder just how fantastic it was, and to rub their bumped heads.
Bear Gulch is a talus cave, which means that it is formed by giant wedged-together rocks that look like they could come crashing down on visitors at any moment, another plus for the Halloween season.
The Townsend bat, said Porter, isn't endangered but is rare enough in California to be a "species of special concern.''
At every rest stop, Porter took the opportunity to counter the Halloween, Hollywood and Gotham City bat myths, which were almost too overwhelming for one ranger in a Smokey Bear hat to deal with. Bats, he said, are mammals, like their human visitors. They are just trying to bring their kids up in a scary world full of great horned owls while making sure none of them drops from the cave ceiling into the guano pit, from which no bat ever returns.
Bats eat mosquitoes, which is good. Bats are kind of cute, which is good. Bats are the only mammals that can fly, and bats do not attack people and drink their blood, which is something that Hollywood popularized to sell tickets to mediocre movies and other events that are not nearly as well attended as bat hikes.
The path through the bat cave is marked with white arrows. Porter, winding his way through the maze, said the bats have a very sensible arrangement at Bear Gulch Cave. Only females and babies are allowed inside, and the males have to live in a cave of their own somewhere else. Countless ages ago, the females figured out that they need the males for only one thing, and not too often at that.
A bat cave, even without bats, is worth a look. The place is naturally spooky, without any special effects or B-movie dialogue. The place speaks to the wonders of geology and fresh flashlight batteries and, on this particular night, drew bat cave fans from as far away as North Carolina.
"It's dark and scary, and I bumped my head,'' said Ed Hansen, who had journeyed from Los Angeles with his 14-year-old daughter, Megan, when he heard the bat cave was open. "But it's worth it. You have to do things like this.''
At the far end of the cave, the group emerged at spectacular Bear Gulch Reservoir at sunset, just in time to see other species of park bats swoop down for an evening drink and some tasty mosquitoes. Bats and mosquitoes have been getting together at sunset for millions of years, and bats must eat their entire body weight in mosquitoes every night or perish from hunger.
"It's hard work to be a bat,'' Porter said, and he led the group down the hill, through the magnificent Pinnacles rock formations, beneath the stars and back to what passes for civilization among a species that has a lot to learn from the creatures of the night.
Bear Gulch Cave at the Pinnacles
The cave where Townsend's big-eared bats hang out will be open through Wednesday.
Here's an annual schedule:*
October
The entire cave is open for at least a week, usually the last week of the month.
Nov. 1 - end of February
The lower half of the cave may be open.
March
The lower half of the cave may be open for the full month. The entire cave is open for at least a week, usually the last week of the month.
April 1 - mid-May
The lower half of the cave may be open.
Mid-July - Sept. 30
The lower half of the cave may be open.
* Dates may change if the colony of bats changes its breeding patterns or shows signs of disturbance.
Source: National Park Service
The Chronicle
If you go
Bear Gulch Cave is fully open only until Wednesday. It's about a 2-mile round-trip walk from the Bear Gulch Visitor Center, which is accessible only from the east entrance of the Pinnacles National Monument, south of Hollister via Highway 25 in San Benito County. Admission to Pinnacles National Monument is $5 per car; admission to the visitor center and cave is free. Cave visitors should bring flashlights and sturdy shoes. For information, call (831) 389-4485 or visit www.nps.gov/pinn.
article
E-mail Steve Rubenstein at srubenstein@sfchronicle.com.
