Climbing the stairs up to the Bear Gulch reservoir. Portions of the stairs were muddy. (Ruined a pair of shorts on a prior trip- that is some evil mud)

Standing on the dam, looking out over the reservoir.
Reservoir level was pretty low. (Better pictures of this spot here)

Left turn at the reservoir to start the route up to North Chalone. The trail is mostly chaparral.

The lookout tower on top of North Chalone pops into view for the first time. (The trail would take a circuitous route and approach from the back side)

Playing with the zoom (and the image stabilization) on my new camera. Not bad. The tower is a bit over 1mi distant.

Looking back down at the "High Peaks" section of the park. A section of the High Peak trail can be seen in the center of the shot.

Pinnacles built this 26 mile fence around the whole park to keep the wild pigs out. (See here)

Once atop the ridge I had a nice view of the Hwy 101 corridor to the west. The Salinas valley was still fogged in.

The trail joined the North Chalone access road a few hundred yards below the peak.