To under­stand how Pin­na­cles Nation­al Park orig­i­nat­ed, imag­ine watch­ing a time-lapse video that spans the past 60 mil­lion years, all the way to the present. As you fast-for­ward through this geo­log­i­cal his­to­ry, you wit­ness the dra­mat­ic trans­for­ma­tion of the land­scape, reveal­ing the sto­ry of Pin­na­cles. When the video starts, the con­ti­nents resem­ble their cur­rent forms. Most of the world’s great moun­tain ranges are already in place, but the Pacif­ic Ocean extends much far­ther inland, and many of California’s coastal moun­tains have yet to rise. These moun­tains, how­ev­er, are on the brink of formation—thanks to the pow­er­ful forces of plate tec­ton­ics. The move­ment of the Earth’s tec­ton­ic plates, includ­ing the inter­ac­tion of the Pacif­ic Plate and the North Amer­i­can Plate, sets the stage for the cre­ation of the land­scape we now know as Pin­na­cles Nation­al Park.