I arrived around 4pm. The skies were generally sunny with high, scuddy clouds passing overhead. I hoped they would disappear in time for some decent viewing; however they insisted on continually passing through the area during the entire evening, making for in-and-out viewing. No dew. I/we decided to call it a night around 10:30pm, thereby violating JVN's 11-o'clock rule (the kids were bushed from a 10-mile hike, anyway.......)
The panoramas in the (private) Pinnacles Campground were fair-to-good, except for a number of inappropriately-placed trees; they are somewhat better inside the park itself, since the valley floor widens a bit and the tree growth is rather sparse in the area where Chad Moore and I set up for the failed Leonid attempt back in Novenber. The valley runs in a northeast-to- southwest direction; the panorama is 20-30 percent in the campground and (IIRC) about 15-25 percent inside the park. Skies are quite dark and steady in the area; no noticeable skyglow in any direction.
Overall rating: good (not great) for dark sky observing; great for lunar and/or planetary work.
[Looks like the Coe folks fared better than I did]........