Pinnacles Overlook is the highest point in the North Unit and the climax of the Loop Road. It faces south over the Sage Creek Wilderness, and on clear days the Black Hills show on the horizon. Canyons and sod tables fill the view to the south, and the National Park Service reads them as a preview of the prairie to the north. Bighorn sheep often gather here, and spring is lambing season on the rocks below. Bison sometimes show up in the distance, in the valley or on the upper prairie to the northwest. The lot has restrooms, exhibits and accessible sites. Drinking water is back at Cedar Pass. Its south-facing view makes it a fine sunset stop, and any wildlife here still gets at least 100 feet of room.
This is the top, on your left, Pinnacles Overlook, with the first restrooms since Bigfoot Pass. If I go quiet when you shut the car off, tap play. If you stop once on this whole road, make it here. Roll past it and you've still driven every layer, from sea floor to river sand. It's the highest ground in the North Unit. That's the Sage Creek Wilderness below, the basin where Boone's wild stallions ran. Everything I've told you since the first gate comes together at that rail. If you've parked, walk out to it now. I'll meet you at the rail.
Photo: NPS / Ed Welsh, public domain · Public domain