Every Trail Tells a Story
Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park
This is the Big Sur park everyone knows-and you’ve got to see it at least once.
The falls-and-redwoods combo makes a perfect family hike.
From lodge to campground to river, it’s the most welcoming park on the coast.
For most visitors, Big Sur begins and ends here. Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park is the gateway, the namesake, the postcard image of Big Sur-complete with redwoods, river, lodge, campground, and trails that almost anyone can enjoy. While the hiking in other Big Sur parks may reach more soul-stirring heights, this is the park where travelers from around the world, in every shape and size, step onto the trail and say: Yes. This is Big Sur.
The park is a cozy package of the Big Sur experience. Families return year after year to camp beneath the redwoods along the Big Sur River. Couples sneak away for a weekend at Big Sur Lodge, its rustic rooms tucked into the forest. Day trippers stop for a sandwich at the lodge café, buy a redwood-scented candle in the gift shop, then take a short hike and feel they’ve tasted the essence of the coast.
This is also Pfeiffer family country. John Pfeiffer, namesake of the park, settled here in 1884, homesteading 160 acres between Sycamore Canyon and the Big Sur River. His cabin, perched above the river gorge, became a landmark for travelers along the rough wagon road that preceded Highway 1. In the 1930s, Pfeiffer sold and donated land to the state, providing the nucleus for the park that now bears his name. You can still see a reconstruction of his homestead cabin along the Gorge Trail.
The park’s trails wind through groves of towering redwoods, across sunny ridges of tanbark oak and live oak, and along the meandering Big Sur River. The hike to Pfeiffer Falls is short but sweet, a family-friendly path with big payoffs: a panoramic view from Valley View Overlook and the cooling mist of a 60-foot waterfall splashing into a grotto.
Come here on any summer day and you’ll hear an international mix of voices on the trail, see families cooling their feet in the Big Sur River, and maybe pass a troop of Scouts headed to the falls. It’s democratic hiking-accessible, inclusive, and quintessentially Big Sur
Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park is located at 47555 Highway, about 26 miles south of Carmel and 2 miles south of the hamlet of Big Sur. Day use parking(fee) is located past the entry kiosk and lodge.
From the day-use lot, follow the accessible path along the Big Sur River to the trailhead for Valley View and Pfeiffer Falls Trails. If Pfeiffer Falls Trail is closed (as it often is for repairs), take Valley View Trail.
The path ascends through oak woodland, climbs a minor ridge, and soon offers a spur trail to Valley View Overlook. Here the Santa Lucias tumble toward the sea, Point Sur juts into the Pacific, and the Big Sur River Valley lies spread below.
Back on the main trail, descend into cathedral-like redwoods. A stairway leads to an observation platform at Pfeiffer Falls, where the 60-foot cascade plunges into a cool grotto. Stand still for a moment, breathe in the mist, and know you’ve walked the path that defines Big Sur for millions of visitors.