"a landscape of massive spires"

Pinnacles National Monument, a landscape of massive spires and sheer-walled canyons east of Salinas Valley, would become California's newest national park under legislation introduced in Congress recently.

Rising out of the chaparral-swathed Gabilan Mountains in central California, the 26,000-acre area of volcanic rock formations is a nesting place for the endangered California condor, North America's largest soaring bird, with wingspans up to 9 feet.