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2 miles South of Rio Road $8 Park entrance fee per car Free to Guests of Big Sur Lodge Click here for Point Lobos Print Version
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Garrapata |
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Garrapata State Park has a wonderfully scenic stretch of coastal area that lures Big Sur travelers to stop and visit. Garrapata is only 7 miles south of Carmel Valley Road and 14 miles north of Andrew Molera State Park. Many visitors take time to linger a bit, enjoying the classic Big Sur shoreline here with its rugged rocks, waves surging and crashing, kelp beds undulating, sea lions barking, gray whales |
migrating, seabirds diving and wildflowers thriving. However, many fewer visitors know about, nor take the time to hike, the marvelously rewarding trails of Garrapata State Park. There are two longer inland trails on the east side of Highway One and also an easy, 2-mile loop trail along the coastal bluffs. |
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Click here for Molera print version
Seven and a half square miles of wilderness, 21 miles south of Carmel, along the ocean, into the mountains, and complete with a wild and scenic river – Andrew Molera State Park is a great favorite for outdoor enthusiasts. The entrance is three miles south of Point Sur and 4.5 miles north of Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park. An $8 per car fee is collected at the parking lot entrance. Guests at the Big Sur Lodge have free entrance to all Big Sur coast state parks during their stay at the Lodge. A variety of interesting trails, most with incredible views, and a 24-site walk-in campground make Molera an engaging place to stay awhile. The park is dissected by the Big Sur River. Long stretches of marine terrace, vast sweeps of beach, expansive scapes of wildflowers, hillsides of coastal scrub, and deep old-growth redwood and oak forests make Molera an imagination-bending experience. |
How the pristine Big Sur River winds from the Ventana highlands to the sea is a rare California natural prize. Big Sur River has no dams, nor any man-made diversions. It is thoroughly untamed and wonderful, it is instructive and magical all at once. How it enters the Pacific at the Headlands is a raucous and lovely place. This is one of the liveliest wild bird encounters on the whole Pacific coast. And, all along the river you walk among one of the most precious and populated songbird habitats anywhere. Molera is a treasure, and there are many trails inviting you in. Among its many attributes, it is a very rewarding birdwatching area (Molera bird watching). Across Highway One from the Molera entrance, the 10-mile Old Coast Road begins its backcountry wind to the Bixby Bridge through a redwood forest. |
Photo by Margie Whitnah |
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Along the lower Big Sur River, the trail offers rare encounters with many bird species: chickadees, bushtits, warblers and many other songbirds (see our Songbird Banding at Big Sur Ornithology Lab), belted kingfishers, red-shouldered hawks, kites, kestrels, and golden eagles. |
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Photo by Margie Whitnah |
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Beach Trail Loop Beginning at the parking lot area’s picnic site, cross the river at the footbridge, which is constructed annually before Memorial Day and removed after Labor Day. Beach Trail begins on the right at the trail fork. Follow it to the beach. Before reaching the beach the Creamery Trail junctions with the Beach Trail. Continue on to experience one of California’s most scenic and dramatic beaches. Molera Beach spans 2.5 miles from the Headlands at the Big Sur River lagoon at the river’s mouth, south to Cooper Point. |
To the north there is whimsical collection of driftwood, and great waves to the south. It is beautiful. Creamery Trail In this trail loop you might see bobcats and coyotes, and probably will see lizards, rabbits, and deer. |
Once at the ridge, an usual place for towering redwoods, hikers may be amazed even more to view the details of Pico Blanco face on, much closer, framed by the erect trunks of redwoods and spreading limbs of ancient oaks. The ridge itself is home to yucca whipplei, a huge dead tree trunk with a portion that looks like art sculpture of a whale’s fluke, plus stunning views in all directions. The extensive panorama includes the Big Sur coast and Santa Lucia ranges as far as visibility allows and, nearby, the canyons of both the Little Big Sur and Big Sur River watersheds.
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Pfeiffer
Big Sur State Park Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park was established in 1933, and is the most popular park on the Big Sur Coast. There are more than 200 drive-in tent camp sites with tables, fire pits and cooking grills in the redwoods and along the Big Sur River, and an exciting complex of trails, and an interpretive nature center. The campground has hot showers and restrooms, large group campgrounds, campfire center, store, laundromat, and Park Rangers conduct daily nature programs during the summer. Make reservations through 1-800-444-7275. There are 62 modern, but rustic and woodsy, cottage units in the redwoods at the Big Sur Lodge in the park. Call 831 667 2025 – or visit: Big Sur Lodge Nature Trail Pfeiffer Redwood Creek Trail to the falls is through a lively, dense old redwood grove. It is an instructive trail. You can see how a redwood forest makes its own soil and understory. The creek cuts through alluvial deposits, and you can see how the valley built up over the eons. |
Photo by Jack Ellwanger |
The whole Big Sur Coastal range is great condor habitat. Hikers can expect to see these avian wonders from most trails. Recently, condors began feeding on deceased marine mammals. This provides a an excellent clean-up service, and is an important resumption of their historic feeding practice. Marine mammals killed by Orcas, are dead by natural causes are dietary favorites. All condors in the Big Sur region have been reintroduced by the Ventana Wildlife Society. The last 15 in this region were captured in 1985. Now there are more than 100 here. They were bred in captivity. Three pair are nesting, but no eggs yet.
37 miles south of Rio Road $8 Park entrance fee per car Plenty of picnic sites along the Big Sur River Free to Guests of Big Sur Lodge Almost 2,000 acres of coastal, canyon and mountain greatness, our sister State Park is a fantastic place and a perfect introduction to Big Sur. Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park is 11 miles south of Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park and covers 7 miles of exquisite coast with many coves. Within the park are idyllic trails, waterfalls, underwater parks, historical gems, riparian hardwood forests, mystic redwood groves with ancient growth trees, and deliriously beautiful scenery. View from top of Ewoldsen Trail Photo by Margie Whitnah |
McWay Rocks from top of Ewoldsen Trail
Photo by Jack Ellwanger
The picturesque little cove is home to sea otters and seals, very clear waters and a kelp forest. It is a wildly aquatic experience. On the point is an old hoist stanchion, formerly used for loading cargo, lumber and tanning bark. The iron eyes for tying up the ships are still in place. You can imagine pirates and bootleggers rousting about.
The second Partington hike begins on the east
side of Highway One. Bring drinking water and maybe
also a flashlight, just in case. For the first
third of the trail there is plenty of good fresh
water. Not so, later. Initially, the trail can be confusing. If you
start out going to the left of the creek, you will
have a lovely saunter in the redwoods, and come
upon an idyllic picnic spot — a boulder hanging
over a wide sparkling pool, with a waterfall in a
cathedral of Sequoia sempervirens. But, this
is the wrong trail. It dead ends at a cliff. The real trail, the Tan Bark, goes along the
south side of Partington Creek, and then up. It
branches to the left in three spots, leading into
forests deeper within the canyon. It stays right,
ascending the canyon. There are a few signs. The
Old Coast Trail crossed here, and surely the ghost
of poet Robinson Jeffers is about. The trail follows a 2,000-foot rise in elevation
over 4 miles through a redwood canyon. Then the Tan Bark Trail climbs along a roaring
stream, waterfalls, springs bubbling out of
hillsides, and into thick stands of exotic oaks,
venerable madrones and manzanitas. The McLaughlin Memorial Grove, on a ledge in a
nook of the forest, high above the raucous creek,
is awesome. The Grove is home to redwoods with
spiraling bark. In several places, particularly farther uphill
in the Swiss Camp area, you see arduous stonework
made 70 years ago. Gunder Bergstrom, who lived here
in the 1920s, did the work, and it shows a deep
love for the area. The stone bridge he built is
like a little human cameo to accent a wish to
preserve one of nature’s finest settings. The
bridge allows the place to be appreciated and
protects the stream environment from human
impact. You cross
streams and pass springs that bubble up in fern
groves, and out of the sides of the canyon. The
trail switches back into sycamore, then tan bark
oak and into unusual old growth redwoods. The trail
hugs the canyon slope which is chaparral-studded
with colorful madrones and manzanitas and piercing
views of the sea, across to Partington Ridge, and
up into the Santa Lucias. You ascend on a
moderately steep gradient, about 12 to 14%,
continuing up until you are 2,000 feet above the
ocean, and can see it through redwoods. It looks
like another planet. On summer afternoons you can
watch huge fog banks flow toward the shore far
beneath. Near the
top you encounter a well-graded road. This can be
your return trip. It is considerably shorter,
descending to Highway One about three-quarters of a
mile south of the point at which you started. So,
you will have to hike up the highway to get back to
your car. Up here you feel you are at the top of the
world. From here the coastal views are sweeping and
the sea is endless. The view east is to the Santa
Lucia high country. You find the Tin House at the top. It was built
by Lathrop Brown, who lived in the grand home
across the cove from McWay Falls. Brown was a high
official in the U.S. State Department during
Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency. Oddly, the
house up here was built of tin salvaged from gas
stations before World War II. Its design is
strange, too. Even though the Tin House is situated
atop a 2,000-foot mountain, practically on top of
the ocean, with unobstructed, majestic vistas, it
has no view from inside the house to the west. Print version of Limekiln State Park Trails
Pfeiffer
Big Sur State Park Point
Lobos Hikes Point
Lobos Reserve Julia
Pfeiffer Burns State Park Partington
Canyon, Cove, Creek & Tan Bark
Trail Andrew
Molera Beach State Park Song
Bird Banding in Big Sur Condors
in Big Sur Big
Sur Lodge PelicanNetwork |