This is a nice quick walk off of Hwy 1 with a lot of roadside parking available. It's a nice quiet…read morewalk since the highway has very few cars and there's thick vegetation around. My complaint with this waterfall is that we couldn't figure out how to get to it! The signage is bad and they need to point you in the right direction more. We were prepared to climb some rocks, as we'd heard that you have to to get to the falls, but when we couldn't figure out which rocks to climb, we just turned around. We were able to see the waterfall from a distance and heard people splashing around. Definitely not a trail to walk when muddy and definitely be prepared to climb a lot of boulders to get to the waterfall.

June 2025 As a city person, this is not a "normal easy…read moretrail" Fair warning, the trail is everywhere, no signs or one real pathway to the fall I'm not a hiker and end up turning back because I didn't think I can hope over wet boulders and climb pass a ledge to reach the waterfalls I'm sure it was worth it, I hear others swimming and having fun but I'm too old for that trail I hope you guys give this a try but be careful

When on a highway 1 trip, its always nice to stop in at the Estero Bluffs where there are views of…read morethe bay and Morro Rock. This park provides a great opportunity for wildlife viewing and opportunity to enjoy the beach near the San Geronimo Creak at the end of a rocky trail. At this park you can also enjoy tidepools, grassland, bluffs and wetlands. And during low tide you can see a breached fishing boat that you can take pictures with or if you are tall and brave enough stand on but be careful as rusty. The boat is found on the southern end of the park. Go during low tide to see the boat and enjoy the tidepools. Multiple parking lots are located off highway one. The best access to the beach can be found at the intersection of highway 1 and San Geronimo Road.

During Camp Keep we went to the tide pools. We were able to climb rocks and look for sea life. A…read morelot of the kids did find mussels, snails, barnacles, even a sea star. It was just a great experience for us all. The naturalist was great, she was informative and so patient. The rocks could be a bit slippery so make sure you have the right shoes.

PACIFIC VALLEY OF TICKS TRAIL* Ive never seen so many…read moreticks in my life (June 2017). If you see my photo, those were just the ticks we found on our clothes AFTER taking them off and putting them in a trash bag to get back to the campground. Literally more than 100 on our dogs and us! I had them all of my back and was wearing two shirts. Looked down at the dogs and saw SWARMS of them crawling all over! Haven't ran that fast in awhile haha! Pretty trail but leave the dogs at home and wear long pants/shirts! You can get your clothing treated for ticks as well. We got about a quarter mile in before I noticed those suckers were all over our dogs and us. In hindsight, I don't recall this trail being dog friendly (this would be a good reason why besides being a wildlife sanctuary) and would not recommend it to any dog owners. Stay away and save yourself the headache & several hours of picking those blood suckers off yourself and poor pup. Continue south down on highway 1 and hit up the Willow Creek Beach instead. Beautiful scenery and cmon', its to be expected in the outdoors, especially in Big Sur. Tall grass = ticks & snakes. Very much a "doh" moment for us. Lesson learned. Glad we had tick forceps in my emergency first aid to pick them off without having to touch them.

Love this place! Always stop by on the side of the road, climb over the ladder, and do some…read moreclimbing. Beautiful place to take pictures! Beautiful in the sun, beautiful in the fog, beautiful in every season.

The first .5 mile has a wooden path but don't try to do the full loop! The trial is quite overgrown…read moreand poison ivy is all along it. There was a small sign that indicated a part of the trail was under maintenance but once on the trail there's little direction other than small signs that tell about the trail. With no warning, suddenly you're in a very overgrown part that continues onto a broken bridge. By the point we got here we assumed we were more than halfway and didn't wanna risk more poison ivy which he had hardly gotten past. I'm glad we chose to continue because after getting past the broken bridge which was blocked off at the end (not the end we had come on) it was open, far less poison ivy and we made it to a road intended for vehicles to grt to the campground I think? It had some beautiful parts but not the sort of thing to bring kids out ages. Very narrow path for most of it!

A nice trail that's part nature walk, part moderate hike. The distance ranges from 3.5 - 3.8 miles…read moreit's a loop trail that goes around Sam Simeon State park/Campground. If you're staying at the camp ground you can easily get to the trail by following the park map. If you're not visiting the campsite there is a pullout area across the campground entrance on the other side near the beach where you can walk the trail under PCH. Coming from the beach trail around the loop you'll get around 450 feet of elevation gain, the trail is pretty simple to follow but if you're looking for direction to follow online there is a map on All Trails under "San Simeon trail to Washburn Campground Loop"

Terrible experience going to this campground. I booked this site a month in advance. I ended up…read morechanging my camp site to a site deeper into the loop which I was charged additionally for. Upon arriving (after 5 hours and 300 miles of travel) I discover my campground is closed off. All surrounding campgrounds are either closed off due to "hazardous tree" or "reserved". So I was at a loss, no reception, no one there, no note left behind for my reservation that is unavailable. So I set up shop at site 14 and hope whoever shows up will share the campsite. Now I'm setting up my tent and I'm literally being swarmed by black gnats. Idk what they are because my citronella candle and dousing of mosquito spray is not working, not at all. After 3 hours of sitting like a duck and not seeing a single other person arrive to this campsite, I figured I couldn't stay alone in this abandoned campground. Over 22 sites here and only myself and a couple in site 1 which is upfront of the entrance were there. However their site shows most of the sites reserved. Unsure why people would choose to visit this campground besides its remoteness. Personally I can't say I recommend this place especially if you're traveling from some ways away. This is why I wrote Thai review. Unfortunately I couldn't in their website and I did not want someone else to have the experience I had.

I absolutely love Ponderosa Campground. There are no running water facilities, meaning no showers…read moreand just pit toilets. We got any water we needed that we did not carry with us from the spigots placed throughout the campground. One of my friends and I came here as part of a California Road Trip in mid-July 2018 (we were living in East Bay at the time - both of us in Albany) and this was our last campground before returning to the Bay Area. We had found most campgrounds were full up, but managed to find Ponderosa Campground with open spots online before making our way here by car. The drive in from the Southeast was through heathland with areas that had experienced burns/fires in the not too distant past. We also drove through Fort Hunter-Liggett, which we did not learn until driving through was in active use by the military. I even had to pull my tiny 2010 Toyota Corolla off to the side of the road to let the military vehicles, including tanks, drive past going the other direction. Careful to not pull off too far or get out of one's car and walk around if you need to pass through there, there were explosives in the ground... literally... We returned to the Fort area briefly after checking in to our campsite to contact our family/friends and let them know we were safe. At the campground itself we did not have cell phone reception and there were zero campground lights. Perfect for if you want to watch the stars at night. Just be careful and don't spook those mountain lions (also called cougars or pumas) into following you when you go to use the pit toilets at night. I found them to be quite friendly if treated kindly and not provoked. The campsite we used had a picnic table, parking space, and a fire pit which we couldn't use due to fire danger. Our site was flat, which was perfect for setting up the tent and playing a board game (Trivial Pursuit) by lantern light at night. The trees were tall and magical, as was the heathland outside of the campground on our drive in. Other campers were respectful and not too noisy, we tried to be quiet as well. All around a great stay I would say.

The Salmon Creek Trail and Waterfall is one of the funner places to take the family along Highway 1…read morein lower Monterey County. This trail is located about 3.5 miles north of the Ragged Point Inn along the middle of large bend in the road. There's a pull-off just north of the trailhead. You have to walk across the bridge to get to the actually trail. After a short walk down the trail you will come to a fork in the road. Follow the arrow to the "Balls".. It used to say Falls but someone changed it to "Balls"... This is a review of the Waterfall Trail that is a split off from the Salmon Creek Trail. The waterfall is less than a quarter mile so most families can make it to the waterfall. Those seeking to access the actual water pool will have to do some hiking over slippery rocks and cold rushing water. That's not advisable unless you're a crafty hiker. Your reward is to stand below, or even behind a 120-foot waterfall. The best pictures have to be earned the hard way on this hike. There's also a cave in this same area. Tips - The rocks here are slippery!! If you want to get to the base of the waterfall I recommend water shoes or just using you bare feet. - Check out the tunnel and graffiti under the bridge.. The trail is just off area where you park, don't cross the bridge, rather just walk down the tiny trail to the base of the bridge ( see my picture).

Short hike from the turn out. Definitely a good pit stop on the drive to big sur. The trail can be…read morea little bit confusing when you're trying to get to the upper falls. Will definitely have to climb some rocks but worth it. We didn't climb to the upper falls because there was quite a few people.

Had a great time learning to wakeboard out on Lake Nacimiento. Fred is a very personable tour guide…read moreas well as a patient and knowledgeable Instructor, My wife, daughter and I had never been wakeboarding before and he had us up on the water in no time. We had originally planned on renting a boat on our own for the day, but having no experience driving a boat and little knowledge of wakeboarding, I thought that our chances for success were pretty slim. After finding the Oak Paradise Wakeboarding website, I knew leaving the driving and teaching to an expert was the way to go. It's definitely something we'll do again.

What an amazing hidden treasure. Hard to find and if you know you know. Not easy to find no markers…read moreits about 800 feet south of sand dollar beach. Hike through some poison ivy into a cool meadow over looking the beautiful cove. Now finding your way down is no joke adventurous people only. Need to find the cliff with the ropes and hold on tight as you cascade the cliff. Once at the bottom you feel amazing like you conquered a hidden secret Now climbing back up I thought would be tough however climbing back up is much easier than going down. This is not for the weak but totally worth it. Highly recommend. Jade well thats the color of the water and if thats what you're searching for I suggest diving for it.

Fun, but getting there can be tricky. I used the AllTrails app to find Jade Cove. I then opened up…read morethe Jade Cove map and looked for the blue dot (my car) going along highway 1. I pulled over at the trail marker.. It worked perfectly. The best part of this experience was the short but precarious hike down to the cove. You'll be required to use a rope to hike down to the beach and back up again. The rope is a permanent fixture. Kids seven and over could do it without any assistance. When at the beach you'll see a lot of green rocks, mostly serpentine. The rule is that you can take anything you like as long as the "tide" ocean is able to touch it. The tidal range goes all the way to the cliffside. - There is no highway sign for jade cove anymore. That was taken down many years ago. - Check the tides and try to come here at low tide. - If you can, when you're at the bottom of the rope hike southward to the next cove. Better rocks over there.