From Mendocino’s fogbound headlands to Big Sur’s volcanic rock and San Diego’s harbor edge—walk to light stations shaped by isolation, duty, and the pull of the sea.
Something about a lighthouse pulls us in.
Maybe it’s the setting—perched on a headland, wind in your face, the Pacific stretching out beyond sight. Or maybe it’s the lives once lived there: keepers and families holding their post through fog, storm, and long stretches of isolation.
Along California’s coast, a handful of these light stations remain—not relics, but places you can still walk to, stand in, and look out from.
In this issue of Hike On, I take you to three of my favorites—Point Cabrillo on the North Coast, Pt. Sur rising out of the Big Sur cliffs, and Old Point Loma above San Diego Bay. Three short hikes. Three very different stretches of coast. And three places where the light still feels close at hand.
Point Cabrillo Light Station State Historic Park
Hiking in Point Cabrillo Light Station State Historic Park offers stunning coastal views and a journey through history. Centerpiece of the 300-acre park, located just north of Mendocino is a beautifully restored 1909 lighthouse.
Atop the lighthouse spins a Fresnel lens—four panels, 90 prisms, 6,800 pounds of optical muscle. The tower itself rises only 32 feet, but perched on the headlands it commands the Pacific like a quiet sentinel. At sunset, the whole scene glows—the lens, the tower, the white buildings—like something painted rather than built.
Outside, behold the natural world. Black-shouldered kites, northern harriers, and marsh hawks swoop over the grasslands. Black oyster catchers, cormorants and pigeon guillemots nest on the rocks offshore from Point Cabrillo. Harbor seals bob in the kelp-fringed water. When the gray whales migrate, they pass close by, while farther out, the spouts of humpback and blue whales can often be seen.
It’s an easy half-mile stroll down the access road to the Light Station. For a longer exploration of the park’s dramatic coastline, take North Trail, which leads across a coastal prairie. You’ll come to a trail junction with one of the strangest—and perhaps most hilarious—trail signs I’ve ever seen. The sign has two arrows: one points “To the Ocean and Lighthouse,” the other to “Tick Infested Area.” Hard choice, eh?
The trail leads to Frolic Cove, where the opium-trading brig Frolic wrecked on a reef in 1850 and became a prime example of the Law of Unintended Consequences. Investigators of the shipwreck couldn’t help noticing the vast coast redwood forests of the Mendocino area and it wasn’t long before loggers arrived, beginning timber operations that would destroy most of the surrounding old-growth forests.
It’s easy hiking to the lighthouse, yes—but linger a little. This is a place where history isn’t behind glass. It’s in the wind, the buildings, the long view out to sea.
Pt. Sur Light Station State Historic Park
From Highway 1, the volcanic rock of Pt. Sur looks like something out of a sea captain’s dream—or nightmare. A 361-foot black basalt plug, it rises abruptly from the Pacific like a stranded island, its crown dotted with ghostly stone buildings. For decades it was also a mariner’s nightmare: the fog-shrouded headland and submerged reefs claimed countless ships before the government finally funded a beacon in 1885.
When the Pt. Sur Light became operational in 1889, its massive Fresnel lens cast a light 23 miles out to sea. Whale oil fueled the first lamps, then kerosene, then electricity, until automation arrived in 1975. By then, four generations of lighthouse keepers and their families had endured a life that was as lonely as it was dramatic. Supplies came by wagon or later by truck along the treacherous coastal road, and storms often cut them off for weeks.
Today the light station is preserved as a time capsule of coastal life. On a guided tour you’ll step inside the keeper’s quarters, blacksmith shop, and barn (yes, livestock once lived on the rock), and of course up to the lantern room where the mighty lens once shone.
And then there’s the view: stand atop Pt. Sur and gaze south toward Bixby Bridge, north to Monterey Bay, west to a horizon where the sun falls into the Pacific. It’s the same view that keepers stared into for generations—half beauty, half duty.
Old Point Loma Lighthouse
Cabrillo National Monument may be short on hiking mileage, but it’s long on history, views, and coastal charm. Perched at the tip of Point Loma, the park offers a fascinating mix: the Old Point Loma Lighthouse, tidepools teeming with sea life, and the Bayside Trail that delivers sweeping views of San Diego.
Built in 1855, the original Point Loma Lighthouse shined proudly over the entrance to San Diego Bay — but at 422 feet above sea level, it was often swallowed by fog and clouds. After just 36 years, it was abandoned for a new light on lower ground. Today, the old lighthouse is beautifully restored to its 1880s appearance, complete with period furnishings from the days when keeper Captain Israel and his family lived there. Rangers give talks and tours, and the lighthouse remains one of the monument’s most charming highlights.
Bayside Trail begins near the old lighthouse. Along the way, enjoy fine views of San Diego Harbor’s busy shipping lanes. Sometimes, rangers even broadcast commentary when Navy ships, freighters, or cruise liners pass below. The views are the star: to the east, the city skyline and mountains beyond; to the south, the sweep of Mexico’s coastline; and to the west, the wide Pacific.
Footnotes
Plan your visit at Point Cabrillo Light Station operated in partnership with State Parks by the nonprofit Point Cabrillo Lightkeepers Association, which oversees the Light Station and lighthouse keepers’ cottages, staffs an excellent visitor center, and conducts tours. Be sure to check out the many trails in the state parks nearby—Mendocino Headlands, MacKerricher, and Russian Gulch.
Learn more about tours offered on weekend mornings at Pt. Sur State Historic Park, located on the west side of Highway 1, 19 miles south of Carmel. And now with Highway 1 fully open, you can drive north to reach it!
A heads-up: Cabrillo National Monument has a lot of charm and very strict operating hours.