Hiking: Big Sur : Eight Great Coastal Walks : Just by taking that extra step beyond Highway 1 turnouts, visitors can discover a world of hidden beaches, rocky coves and wildlife

Big Sur means different .jthings to different people. To renowned photographer Ansel Adams it was both artistic and spiritual inspiration. To locals it’s the Monterey County village of Big Sur, with its post office, roadside businesses and campgrounds, lodging and information station. To the casual tourist, it’s a stop at the restaurant Nepenthe for a cappuccino, an Ambrosia Burger and a stroll through the Phoenix gift shop. To the gotta-get-from-Hearst-Castle-to-Monterey-this-afternoon motorist, it’s a snapshot taken from one of the scenic turnouts off California 1.

California 1, between the San Luis Obispo county line and Carmel, has long been regarded as one of the world’s great drives. It was officially designated California’s first scenic highway 30 years ago. Auto magazine writers put new cars through their paces here. Many a car commercial shows the latest from Detroit or overseas crossing the highway’s magnificent bridges and zooming through its serpentine turns.

More than 3 million visitors a year pass through Big Sur on California 1. The few signed and many unsigned scenic viewpoints are crowded with rental cars piloted by seekers from around the world who marvel at the mighty ocean crashing against the bold headlands. But the highway only comes close to the Big Sur coast.

A more intimate connection can be made by walking to and along the shore, snatching close-up views of an otter grabbing mussels off the rocks or of a cormorant diving for a fish. A little effort yields big rewards: wildflowers, wildlife and wild beaches hidden from the highway.

These pathways may be inspiring, but they’re not very well signed or easy to find--particularly by the driver who is concentrating on the precipitous, cliff-hugging, twisty two-lane highway.

But for those who would like to explore the land between the highway and the horizon, here are the best places to stop and stroll, eight great Big Sur coast walks.

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Garrapata State Park offers some of Big Sur’s most striking coastline--hidden beaches, rocky coves and bluffs carpeted with native wildflowers and ice plant. All that and there is wonderful wildlife-watching: Sea otters and sea lions bask on rocks just offshore; sea birds, such as oyster catchers and cormorants, glide over the waves. Garrapata’s bluffs are excellent vantage points from which to observe California gray whales on their annual winter migration from seas near Alaska down to Baja.

Soberanes Point Trail (1 3/4 miles, round trip) loops around Soberanes Point, a bold headland that terminates in a ridge known as Whale Peak. From the peak, enjoy a grand coastal view north to Carmel’s Yankee Point and south to Point Sur.

Access: From California 1, about six miles south of Carmel, look for Gate 13 on the west side of the highway. Park off the highway and walk in.

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Garrapata State Beach is a wild and beautiful half-mile-long sand strand accessible by a short quarter-mile-long trail. While the clear, blue-green water surging ashore at this splendid beach can be positively hypnotic, be extra cautious on Garrapata’s sandy shores and rocky points. The coast here is known for its rogue waves--ocean swells that have swept the unwary off their feet and, in some cases, to their deaths.

Access: From California 1, look carefully for the gate with the number 32 on it on the west side of the highway, 2.6 miles south of the Soberanes Point turnout.

Opened in 1889, and not fully automated until the last keeper left in 1974, Point Sur Lightstation (which includes the lighthouse) is an intriguing sight from the highway and even more fascinating when viewed up close on a tour conducted by volunteer docents. In fact, the sole way to explore the facility--the only intact lighthouse with accompanying support buildings on the California coast--is by guided tour.

The half-mile walking tour includes the lighthouse itself, the keepers’ houses, the blacksmith shop and the barn, where livestock was kept to maintain the self-sufficiency of the compound. Visitors learn the fascinating story of the isolated life lived by the four keepers and their families who tended the lighthouse.

Docent-led tours are offered on Saturdays, Sundays and Wednesdays (April through October). Cost: $5 for adults, $3 for kids ages 13 to 17. Call (408) 625-4419 for more information.

The view is superb from atop the 360-foot-high basaltic rock, on which the lighthouse complex is perched, offering an eyeball-to-eyeball view of gulls and cormorants. To the south is False Sur, named for its confusing resemblance to Point Sur, when viewed from sea.

Access: From California 1, the lighthouse turnoff is about six miles north of the Big Sur information station.

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Andrew Molera State Park, the largest state park along the Big Sur coast offers the walker mountains, meadows and the mouth of Big Sur River.

More than 20 miles of trail weave through the park. Hike along the bluffs overlooking three miles of beach, and climb through meadows and oak woodland. At the river’s mouth are a shallow lagoon and a beautiful sandy beach.

A good three-mile walk is to take Beach Trail to the beach at the mouth of the Big Sur River, then return via a trail on the other side of the river.

Access: From California 1, about 21 miles south of Carmel, take the well-marked state park entrance on the west side of the highway. There’s a state park day-use fee of $5.

With its hazardous surf and gusty winds, Pfeiffer Beach is not a comfortable stretch of coastline. It is, however, magnificent.

Named for the pioneer Pfeiffer family who settled the area, this secluded white-sand beach faces the turbulent sea that sends awesome waves crashing through blowholes in the rocks. A short walk (three-quarters of a mile, round trip) wends through cypress trees and ends at the beach.

Marvel at the sea stacks, blowholes and caves, and try to find a place out of the wind to eat lunch. The more ambitious may pick their way over rocks northward for a mile to a crescent-shaped beach.

Access: From California 1, a mile south of Big Sur State Park, turn west onto Sycamore Canyon Road--a sharp downhill turn. Follow the two-mile, narrow, winding and sometimes washed-out road to the Forest Service parking area.

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Partington Cove--part of Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park--was, during the 1880s, the site of a dock where tanbark stripped from local trees was loaded onto waiting ships. Tanbark, which contains tannin, was used to tan hides before the creation of synthetic tannin and gathering and shipping the bark was a considerable industry along the Big Sur coast.

A quarter-mile trail leads to Partington Creek and the deep blue waters of the cove. From an iron gate, follow the dirt road that drops down into the canyon cut by Partington Creek, then cross the creek on a wooden footbridge and pass through a hundred-foot-long tunnel that was blasted through the rocky cliffs.

Access: From California 1, Partington Cove Trail begins 1.8 miles north of the Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park entrance. Park on either side of the highway where California 1 crosses Partington Creek.

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McWay Falls, also in Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, is the only major California waterfall to spill into the Pacific. Take the signed trail toward the McWay Falls scenic overlook. The path leads through a tunnel under California 1 and emerges to offer the walker grand panoramas of the Big Sur coast.

At the overlook, observe slender, but dramatic McWay Falls tumbling almost a hundred feet from the granite cliffs into McWay Cove. In winter, migrating California gray whales can be seen from the park’s coastal overlooks.

Access: Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park straddles California 1, 36 miles south of Carmel and about 10 miles south of Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park. Turn inland (east) and park in the lot. There’s a $5 day-use fee.

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Sand Dollar Beach, one of Big Sur’s longest sand strands, is a favorite of sunbathers and surfers. The wide bluffs looming over attract hikers as well as hang gliders looking for a landing spot.

Above the beach is Pacific Valley, which geologists say isn’t really a valley but a wide, flat marine terrace. (So precipitous is Big Sur, early place-namers can be forgiven for calling any nearby flatland a valley.) By whatever name, Pacific Valley is a marked contrast to most of Big Sur’s slopes, which tumble steeply and directly into the ocean. The valley offers a rare bit of relatively level walking.

Crumbly schist and shale form the coastal terrace that stands 60 to 100 feet above the surging Pacific. The bluff top is mostly covered with grass, along with clumps of lizardtail, buckwheat and sagebrush.

The bluffs offer dramatic coastal views, as well as providing a good vantage point from which to spot sea otters and migrating California gray whales. Cows are by far the most common animal life here--Pacific Valley has been extensively grazed for decades.

It is possible to join the trail from several hiker’s stiles at California 1 turnouts, between Plaskett Creek Campground and the Pacific Valley store. But the best place to start is at Sand Dollar Picnic Area, where there is a choice of coastal trails.

The main trail descends directly to Sand Dollar Beach. Pause en route at the vista point, where interpretive signs identify the many shorebirds found there.

From the northwest end of the parking area, an unmarked footpath travels the cattle-grazed bluffs north of Sand Dollar Beach. The mile-long trail dips in and out of two ravines and crosses what has to be one of the prettiest pastures on the Pacific Coast. Shorter side trails lead to bluff top overlooks and hidden pocket beaches.

A third path leads south half a mile from Sand Dollar picnic area toward Jade Cove.

Access: From California 1, Sand Dollar picnic area is west, about a mile south of the village of Pacific Valley.