Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Point Sur Lighthouse stands as a sentinel of the bygone era of dangerous marine travel.
Trip Description
From turnout 7, the trail quickly reaches
Soberanes Creek
and a junction with a short
spur down to the water's edge. Veer left across the creek through a dense stand of
Monterey cypress between turnouts 8 and 9, where you'll find a portable toilet. If you
parked at the Rocky Ridge and Soberanes Canyon Trailhead (turnout 8), your hike
will begin here.
A few steps south of the cypress grove, you'll pass a junction with a trail to the
left that skirts Highway 1. Those taking the 2-mile loop will return along this trail.
Stay right and you'll soon reach a fork. Veer right to explore the dramatic shoreline
that leads to rocky
Soberanes Point.
The route crosses bluffs covered with California
sagebrush, bush lupine, coyote brush, coffeeberry, and other coastal scrub plants.
Beyond the point, the trail curls east and then north past the western flanks of
Whale Peak
to the junction between gates 8 and 9. If you parked at turnout 7, retrace
your steps north across Soberanes Creek.
BIG SUR ROCKS
Big Sur's coastal topography is a stunning blend of clear, cobalt water and the rugged
granitic rocks of the Santa Lucia Range. Geologists believe these rocks originated in
the southern Sierra in present-day Mexico and moved northwest hundreds of miles
along the San Andreas Fault. These hard, crystalline rocks of the Salinian block also
comprise many of the prominent high peaks of the range, such as Ventana Double
Cone and Pico Blanco.
Deep underground, the molten rock slowly cooled, forming large crystals that
glisten in the sun, lending the stone a grayish, salt-and-pepper appearance in the surf
zone and a weathered rusty orange farther up the bluffs. As they slowly erode in the
pounding surf, these durable rocks produce coarse-grained particles that sink quickly
to the bottom, leaving little sediment to cloud the water.
Point Sur State Historic Park
T
HE CENTERPIECE OF THIS
historic park is Point Sur Lighthouse, perched 270 feet atop
an isolated volcanic rock at the mouth of the Little Sur River. Built in 1889, the light
provided invaluable warning to thousands of ships that plied this treacherous coast.
Life for keepers and their families was lonely and isolated until the completion of
Highway 1 in 1937. Then, in the 1960s, the U.S. Coast Guard began automating light-
houses. The last keeper left Point Sur in 1974. Year-round guided walking tours fea-
ture the lighthouse and supporting structures.
