Heading up highway 146 towards the west entrance of Pinnacles National Monument (Paicines, CA) to the Chapparal ranger station today (5/14/2011), there was a fairly large, fresh fire outside the park (near Stonewall Canyon). The fire had been put out, but there were still areas that could be seen smoldering and there were still fire crews out moving about. You could definitely still smell the fire in the air. It didn’t appear that there had been any damage to buildings and although fairly near Pinnacles National Monument, it was still well outside the monument’s borders. If you do enter Pinnacles through the west entrance, you most definitely will see the fire scars: