Hike in Andrew Molera SP

Andrew Molera State Park in Big Sur is only 2 hours away from Sunnyvale, we drove there on Sunday morning, started to hike at 10AM, and were back home by 8PM. The trip details were set in advance thanks to the Redwood Hikes, which I found on the web while browsing for the Big Sur maps.

Our first hike up the East Molera Trail was in a full sun and exhausting. We scrambled up the grassy hill for about 2 miles and got past the small redwood grove with the tree trunks black from the 2008 fire. The trail was extending higher and deeper into the Big Sur, but it was too hot for the inland hiking. We took a couple pictures from the highest point and rushed down to the coast. On the way back we visited the Molera ranch house, which is now turned into a small museum.

View from the East Molera Trail at the Big Sur River estuary

View at the East Molera Trail from the coast

The second hike was the Bluffs, Panorama, and Ridge loop. This is really a magnificent hike, going along the beach in one direction and then back on the mountain ridge. The Bluffs trail has short connector trails to the beach, we took one of them, the Spring Trail, to have a rest on the beach. I learned later that at the low tide one can walk on the beach all the way from the Big Sur River to the Spring Trail, I would like to try it next time as an option to the Bluffs Trail. Past the Spring Trail the trail climbs up to the ridge and has sections with only a foot wide corridor between 6 foot tall and higher plants. I never experienced that in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

A turkey vulture in flight over the park

A rest at the beach at the end of the Spring Trail

Deer hikers on the Panorama trail

The Ridge trail is mostly flat and goes partially through the forest with redwoods and other trees. This was a nice surprise because after reading the trail description on the web I was ready for the unshaded hills. I certainly want to come back to this park another time, perhaps in early spring.