From Dry Wall, an eroded cliff in the new eastern addition to Pinnacles National Monument, resource management chief Larry Whalon can spot rocky Hawkins Peak rising among the park's otherworldly volcanic spires. His view takes in some of the 7,960 acres President Clinton recently added to the monument, but Whalon sees more than chaparral: He sees opportunities under every rhyolite boulder and behind every chamise bush.

    "There's so much to do," Whalon says. He flushes with energy as he talks about what the added lands mean to the park. "It's exciting. We're planning what the park should look like in 30 years." More trails, new cultural activities, and a park-run campground--all are possibilities for the future, he says.

    Clinton's decree was one of a slew of presidential proclamations this year that used the 1906 Antiquities Act to expand or create national monuments in the West. The Pinnacles proclamation adds oak woodlands, chaparral, and riparian habitat to this beloved wilderness area 75 miles south of booming Silicon Valley.

    Since Theodore Roosevelt established the park in 1908, Pinnacles National Monument has been acclaimed for its rugged hiking, rock climbing, bird-watching, and--due to the area's exceptionally clean air--stargazing. But the park is best known for its unusual geology. The spires of High Peaks ridge are part of an eroded volcano that formed 23 million years ago on the San Andreas Fault, then split in two as the Pacific continental plate migrated north. The rust-colored pinnacles look like nothing else in the surrounding landscape--because they originated 195 miles to the south.