Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
from hiking the 2 miles along Highway 1 back to the parking lot, however, as narrow
lanes leave little room between speeding cars and you.
From Bluffs Trail, follow the spurs for dramatic vistas atop coastal bluffs.
Continuing along the Ridge Trail, you'll reach the
Hidden Trail junction
(6.3
miles, 730'). Pause to admire an awesome view that encompasses the lower Big Sur
watershed, bordered by sprawling willows, alders, cottonwoods, and bigleaf maples
against a backdrop of prominent peaks along the
Santa Lucia Range.
To the south-
east,
Manuel Peak
(3379') rises amid a dark green patchwork of redwoods that border
the Big Sur on its way through a narrow gorge. On a clear day you'll also see
Cone
Peak
(5155'), which rises from the shoreline some 40 miles southeast. Less steep but
perhaps more impressive, conical, marble-capped
Pico Blanco
(3709') towers over
the nearby Santa Lucia foothills.
The return to your vehicle via the Hidden and River Trails, then across the Big
Sur along the final stretch of the Creamery Meadow Trail (see
TRIP 14 Creamery
Meadow, River, Hidden, & Ridge Trails Loop
, for details), is a half mile less than if
you continue on the Ridge Trail to the Creamery Meadow Trail.
