Salmon Creek Falls
South Big Sur, near Ragged Point · near Gorda · Central Coast
Hiking
At a glance
- Difficulty
- easy
- Route type
- out-and-back
- Distance
- 0.5 miles
- Elevation gain
- 60 ft
- Time needed
- day
- Best season
- Winter-spring (Dec-May) for strongest flow
Permits and booking
- Permit required
- No
- How the permit works
- Free; small roadside pullout on a Hwy 1 horseshoe bend ~3.7 mi N of Ragged Point. Southernmost Big Sur - usually reachable from the south even during northern slides. Heavy poison oak.
- How hard the permit is to get
- 0 of 5
What is here
- Features
- A ~120-ft two-tiered waterfall · Plunges into a boulder-strewn glen · Southernmost Big Sur (often accessible during slides) · A short walk with a scramble to the base
Worth knowing
- Dogs
- Allowed
- Good for a first timer
- Yes
Hiking detail
- Intl tip
- A 120-ft waterfall steps from Hwy 1 at Big Sur's far south end - a quick walk with a boulder scramble to the base. Best flow in winter and spring. Often reachable from the south even when northern Hwy 1 slides close the road. Watch for poison oak.
The guide
Salmon Creek Falls is one of the most accessible waterfalls on the Big Sur coast - a hundred-and-twenty-foot, two-tiered cascad…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Salmon Creek Falls — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 35.8157, -121.3588