Each trip is shown on a map, which is placed adjacent to the trip itself or adjacent to a nearby trip. Please see the map legend for details about the maps.
Trip Description
Each trip description offers a thorough breakdown of the route, including trail conditions, seasonal considerations, water sources, historical notes, geology, plant and animal life, etc. Directions include all trail and spur junctions, camps, natural landmarks, and other notable features. Camps, junctions, and certain key features are listed in bold type followed by a parenthetical notation of the distance from the trailhead in miles and elevation in feet—for example, Hiding Canyon Camp (5.5 miles, 2500').
In certain instances, trail descriptions may overlap from one trip to the next. In such cases, the reader might be directed to a previous description for the route up to a certain point—for example, “See TRIP 49 Pine Valley for the first 5.3 miles of this route to Pine Valley.”
If a spur leads to a notable feature (e.g., a camp, swimming hole, etc.), the trip description may include a Side Trip that elaborates on that feature. You’ll also find sidebars throughout the text that offer more detail about natural features, historical anecdotes, and the like.
Tectonic activity created the prominent peaks and ridges of the Santa Lucia Range.
CHAPTER two
Natural History
Geology
BIG SUR’S RUGGED LANDSCAPE speaks to a tumultuous past, when ocean and rock collided in a dramatic convergence. It is a geologically youthful region. In just 5 million years, Big Sur has been smashed between colliding tectonic plates, compressed by massive faults, and rammed upward to form the jagged peaks, steep ridges, and deep gorges of the Santa Lucia Range.
While the mountains themselves may be relative toddlers, many of the rocks bear ancient origins, tens of millions of years old. The convoluted topography means that rock types formed under radically different conditions lie confusingly side by side. Ancient mountain ranges, seafloors, stream sediments, and molten rock form a jumbled matrix that continues to baffle geologists.
The story for most of these rocks begins 130 million years ago, amid sediments from an ancient mountain range 1800 miles southeast in present-day Mexico. In that era, North America’s western shoreline lay about where the Sierra Nevada stands today, everything west was submerged beneath the ocean, and the Santa Lucia Range did not exist. In the following millennia, westbound rivers deposited the sediments along the coast, where these layers eventually solidified into sandstone, siltstone, and limestone.
Over subsequent millions of years, a massive oceanic plate slid slowly beneath the continental plate. The increasing depth and pressure melted the sandstone, siltstone, and limestone, which slowly cooled and solidified underground as various types of granite, marble, schist, and gneiss. The cooling process formed large crystals that lend these rocks a salt-and-pepper appearance in the sunlight. Geologists believe that rock types along the Big Sur coast and Santa Lucia Range share traits with granites of the Sierra Nevada, comprising a group called the Salinian block.
The hard, crystalline rocks of the Salinian block comprise many of the prominent high peaks of the range, such as Ventana Double Cone and Pico Blanco, as well as many of the rugged coves, cliffs, and promontories along the Big Sur coastline, particularly at Garrapata, Julia Pfeiffer, and Partington Cove. These durable, erosion-resistant granitic rocks hold up well in the pounding surf, producing little sediment to cloud the waters. Any sediment is coarse-grained and quickly sinks to the bottom, unlike finer sediments that cloud coastal waters elsewhere in California.
These rocks are readily identified when exposed. Limestone and marble outcrops are vivid white with a sugary texture. Granitic rocks in the surf zone appear coarse with reflective faces, while rocks higher on the bluffs weather a rusty orange. Collectively, the Salinian block rocks form the basement layers in the north half of the Santa Lucia Range.
Sandstone cliffs tower above the open grasslands and pine-studded meadows of Ventana Wilderness.
As the denser oceanic plate dove under the lighter continental plate, massive accumulations of sand, mud, and the skeletons of microscopic sea creatures scraped off and slipped into a deep undersea trench. The resulting jumble appears along the Big Sur coast in the Franciscan formation, part of the Nacimiento block, which forms the underlying rock in the south half of the Santa Lucia Range.
The exposed cliffs at Andrew Molera State Park include excellent examples of Franciscan rocks. Formed from silica-rich sea creature skeletons, chert features jagged layering and an erosion-resistant glasslike texture. Sandstone is characterized by its tan color, rough surfaces, and fine sand grains. Comprising hardened, compressed mud, shale is gray-black in color with microscopic grains.
Serpentine, California’s state rock, forms in layers that solidify above molten rock. These layers are scraped off and jumbled near the surface, where they react with groundwater to form this slippery green stone. You’ll find dramatic serpentine outcrops in the Silver Peak Wilderness amid the Salmon Creek and San Carpoforo drainages.
Other younger rocks formed in the vicinity of the Santa Lucia Range before a single peak rose above the surface. A few million years ago, this area was a drainage basin that collected sediments in the form of sand, silt, and boulders. In time these solidified into sandstone, siltstone, and conglomerate. Conglomerate is least common, although at Point Lobos it is the dominant sedimentary rock and forms dramatic outcrops and cobblestone promontories.
While these theories may explain how the rocks formed, they don’t explain how the rocks traveled hundreds of miles and rose to form the Santa Lucia Range. That story begins along the San Andreas Fault system some 30 million years ago. Once again, tectonic forces brought oceanic and continental plates together. This time, the North American plate and the Pacific plate met and began to grind past one another, marking the San Andreas Fault boundary.
Two massive chunks of Earth’s crust, the Nacimiento and Salinian blocks, were ripped from their moorings along the North American plate and pushed northward along the numerous major faults associated with the San Andreas system. These faults generally run northwest-southeast, paralleling the coastline and general trend of the coastal mountains. A prime example is the Sur-Nacimiento Fault, which separates the Salinian and Nacimiento blocks, relieving pressure along the San Andreas Fault. As the tectonic plates collided, compressed, and fractured along these major fault lines, the land buckled in on itself like folds in a loose carpet, giving rise to the peaks, ridges, and gorges of the Santa Lucia Range.
Stream courses mark many of these otherwise indiscernible faults. The lower Big Sur River from the gorge to Andrew Molera State Park offers startling proof of how fault movement can alter a watercourse. Along this section, the river flows straight down the Sur Thrust Fault until it is forced into a conspicuous 90-degree turn out to Molera Beach.
Coastal bluffs, or marine terraces, offer evidence that the Santa Lucia Range continues its abrupt rise above sea level. These bluffs form as waves carve into the bedrock and deposit coarse sand and sediments. As land west of the San Andreas Fault buckles, these platforms rise above sea level, exposing the layered sand and cobblestones. Prominent marine terraces stretch from Point Sur to Andrew Molera State Park, while broader terraces form the flat terrain at Pacific Valley.
Erosion serves as a counteracting force to the recent uplifted Santa Lucia Range. As mountain flanks rise ever steeper, streams cut deep, fast channels through the rock, carrying away thousands of tons of sediment. A clear creek in summer can become a muddy torrent during heavy winter rains or after wildfires remove anchoring vegetation. Landslides are a common phenomenon in Big Sur. Of course, the Pacific Ocean also accounts for its fair share of erosion.