Above the Redwoods at Big Sur

Sometimes visitors to Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park are so enchanted by the spectacle of McWay Falls tumbling into the Pacific that they overlook this Big Sur park’s considerable back country--more than 3,600 acres of dramatic ridges, oak-dotted meadows and rugged, redwood-filled canyons.

Ewoldsen Trail, named for the former ranch foreman who fashioned this path from a onetime logging route back in 1933, tours McWay Canyon and surrounding slopes. The trail was closed after the 1985 Rat Creek Fire burned most of the state park, but the lower portion has been repaired.

For the hiker, Ewoldsen Trail offers an intriguing contrast between the cool, quiet redwood groves in McWay Canyon and the exposed grassy coastal ridge. Fogless days mean splendid views from Lopez Point north to Pfeiffer Point.

Directions to trail head: Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park is located just off California 1, about 36 miles south of Carmel and 12 miles south of Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park. Turn east into the park and proceed to the day use lot. The fee is $6.

The hike: The trail follows redwood-lined McWay Creek, passes the park’s picnic area and crosses a bridge near an old barn, then continues a short distance up McWay Creek to reach a small waterfall.

Fron here, it switchbacks up the canyon wall in a mixed forest of tan oak, bay laurel and redwood. A bit more than a mile out, the trail reaches a junction. Fork right, taking the eastern leg of the Ewoldsen loop.

The path continues climbing along the cascading creek, past fire-scarred redwoods. After half a mile, the trail leaves McWay Canyon for scrubbier slopes, climbing three-fourths-mile to the ridge top crest of the trail. You’ll continue your loop, following the path to a Pacific-facing grassland, then beginning a somewhat steep descent.

Coastal vistas are inspiring. This part of the trail is a good lookout for California gray whales during their winter migration. Less inspiring is the rather close-up view of the great slide of 1983, or rather the scar from its repair--a terraced wasteland that is still ugly despite extensive replanting.

The trail departs the ridge, descending back into McWay Canyon and the tranquillity of its redwoods. You’ll cross McWay Creek and close the loop, retracing your initial steps a mile back to the trail head.

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Ewoldsen Trail

WHERE: Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park.

DISTANCE: 4.3-mile loop; 1,600-foot elevation gain.

TERRAIN: Redwood forest, open grassland.

HIGHLIGHTS: Some of Big Sur’s largest redwoods; coastal vistas.

DEGREE OF DIFFICULTY: Moderate to strenuous.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Julia Pfeiffer State Park, Big Sur Station #1, Big Sur, CA 93920, tel. (408) 667-2315.