Cone Peak
Los Padres NF / Santa Lucia Range, Big Sur · near Lucia · Central Coast
Hiking
At a glance
- Difficulty
- strenuous
- Route type
- out-and-back
- Distance
- 21 miles
- Elevation gain
- 5,000+ ft
- Time needed
- day
- Best season
- Late spring-fall (Jun-Oct); Cone Peak Rd often closed - verify
Permits and booking
- Permit required
- No
- How the permit works
- No fee/permit; free Kirk Creek trailhead parking. KEY: the short summit approach relies on Cone Peak Road, typically open ~June-Oct and often storm-damaged - verify with Los Padres NF. Hwy 1 here is landslide-prone (check Caltrans).
- How hard the permit is to get
- 0 of 5
What is here
- Features
- Highest coastal peak relative to the shoreline in the Lower 48 · Rises to 5,155 ft just ~3 mi from the ocean · Summit lookout tower & endemic Santa Lucia firs · Staggering ocean-to-mountain views
Worth knowing
- Dogs
- Allowed
- Good for a first timer
- No
Hiking detail
- Intl tip
- Big Sur's ultimate summit - 5,155 ft rising almost straight from the sea. The full Kirk Creek route is a huge day (21 mi, 5,000 ft); the short version needs Cone Peak Road open (~June-Oct, often closed). Verify the road AND Hwy 1 (Caltrans) before you go.
The guide
Cone Peak is Big Sur's great sea-to-summit challenge - a 5,155-foot mountain that rises almost straight out of the Pacific just…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Cone Peak — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 36.0083, -121.592