Pinnacles National Park

How To Use This Visualization Tool

This bubble plot compares elevation gain of trails, length of trails, and popularity of trails.

  • Hover over any bubble to see: trail name, length of the hike, and elevation gain of the hike
  • Click and drag your cursor over a section of the chart that you want to zoom into, such as a cluster of bubbles
  • Hover over the chart and click the 'house' symbol in the upper right hand corner to reset the view
  • Larger and darker bubbles indicate more popular trails

Note On Trail Popularity:

For most parks, trails that are on the very upper end of the park's trail lengths and elevation gain are less popular than other trails. If you are looking to hike the most popular trails in the park, the elevation gain and length of the trail will likely differ from that of the most popular trails in other parks, though typically the most popular trails will be under five miles.

The popularity of a trail doesn't correlate with elevation gain and length of the trail. So, if you are looking to hike more secluded trails, there are plenty of trail options in each park that have similar length and elevation gains to the most popular trails but are less often hiked. Check out the table below to find out more about those trails!



How To Use This Visualization Tool

This strip-chart compares route type (loop, out-and-back, or point-to-point) of trails and popularity of trails.

  • Hover over any bubble to see: trail name and popularity

Note On Trail Popularity:

At most parks, loop and out-and-back trails are significantly more popular on average than point-to-point trails. Additionally, there are typically a greater number of loop and out-and-back trails in the park as compared to point-to-point trails, though there are typically low-popularity and high-popularity trails of all three types.

For some parks, you will find that loop trails are on average more popular than out-and-back trails, and in other parks it's the opposite. There is no consistent trend regarding why a certain park may have more popular loops versus out-and-backs or vice versa.