Pinnacles National Park was designated a national park in 2013.
The designation marked a change in title rather than the creation of an entirely new protected landscape. President Theodore Roosevelt established Pinnacles as a national monument on January 16, 1908. The area protects dramatic rock formations, talus caves, and wilderness east of California’s Salinas Valley, near the communities of Hollister and Soledad.
Congress approved legislation to redesignate the monument as a national park, and President Barack Obama signed it on January 10, 2013. The legislation also renamed the existing Pinnacles Wilderness as the Hain Wilderness, honoring Schuyler Hain, an early advocate for protecting the area. Pinnacles became California’s ninth unit in the National Park System to carry the national-park title.
A common mistake is to answer 1908. That is the year Pinnacles first received federal protection as a national monument, not the year it became a national park. Another misconception is that the 2013 change fundamentally altered the site’s management; the designation largely elevated its official status while preserving its existing purpose and protections.