Ventana Wilderness (Big Sur)
Los Padres National Forest · near Big Sur · Central Coast
Hiking
At a glance
- Difficulty
- strenuous
- Route type
- out-and-back
- Distance
- 20 miles
- Elevation gain
- 4,000 ft
- Time needed
- multi-day
- Best season
- October–May (avoid summer heat and fire season)
Permits and booking
- Permit required
- No
- How the permit works
- No wilderness permit required for the Ventana Wilderness — one of California's few permit-free backcountry areas. A free California campfire permit is needed to use a stove. Check trail status: the Pine Ridge Trail to Sykes has had long fire closures; verify it's open before planning.
- How hard the permit is to get
- 1 of 5
What is here
- Features
- Redwood canyons · Riverside hot springs · Permit-free wilderness · Big Sur backcountry
Worth knowing
- Dogs
- Allowed
- Good for a first timer
- No
Hiking detail
- Nights
- 2–3
- Resupply
- None needed. No bear canister required, but proper food hanging advised.
- Intl tip
- This is one of the few marquee California backpacking areas with no permit hurdle — but that also means no ranger checking that the trail is actually open. Fire closures on the Pine Ridge/Sykes corridor have been extensive and repeated; check the Ventana Wilderness Alliance and Los Padres National Forest sites for current conditions before you drive to the trailhead.
The guide
The Ventana Wilderness is the rugged interior of Big Sur — a maze of chaparral ridges and redwood-filled canyons rising steeply…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Ventana Wilderness (Big Sur) — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 36.248, -121.777