Big Sur: Hiking to the Falls

Big Sur is famous for its coastline and for some waterfalls up at the northern end, near Carmel, where the redwoods great the sea.  Friday, we headed up that direction with our list of hikes in hand.  My foot had tolerated the two short hikes we did the day before just fine, so we had an ambitious list.  I hadn't been to Big Sur in over 20 years and didn't know when I'd be back.  I didn't want to have any regrets about missed waterfalls.

The first hike was not well marked - "park past a big sweeping inland turn and take the trail by the green cattle gate."  We found it  and started down a steep dirt road.  We could see a tunnel below us, where the trail went through to a cove.

We followed a stream for awhile.  We hiked along many streams that day.

Then we went through the tunnel.

On the other side, the trail continued until it reached the end of the outcropping shoreline.

We watched the surf crash into a small secluded cove for awhile before heading back up the hill.  Again, my foot was fine.

We traveled further north to Julia Pfeiffer State Park which is located at the site of the most famous waterfall on the coast.  Water spills from the bluff onto the sand below.  It is impossible to get down the side of the cliff to the beach so it's beauty is unspoiled.

(We did think that the waterfall looked liked some giant was standing in the trees on the bluff and peeing onto the beach.)

We hiked two more trails after that, up to smaller waterfalls.

We had lunch overlooking the ocean and the fog started to burn off.

It was almost sunny for our afternoon hikes.

When we got back to our yurt, my foot was done, cooked, fini.  I flopped onto my bed, exhausted but proud that I had hiked four trails (okay, okay, one of them was less than a mile total) and a grand total of six miles.  Camille poured me a glass of champagne and we declared the trip a success.