SPECIAL REPORT! Andrew Molera Loop Hike

Waning Gibbous Moon

BREAKING NEWS: We interrupt your previously scheduled programming with this Palomino Special Report.

Today I traveled to Andrew Molera State Park twenty-one miles south of Carmel,CA on Highway 1 with my erstwhile, intrepid, sometimes hiking partner Mike "Captain Chem" Carroll. The goal? Hike the 8.4 mile loop around the park that includes the Ridge Trail, the Panorama Trail, the Bluff Trail, and the Creamery Meadow Trail. The thick morning coastal  fog lifted briefly, but the Sun just couldn't burn it all away. Here is a map that shows our route. We chose the clockwise direction, just to go with the flow of Wednesday.

This is a moderately strenuous walk that features wide, climbing views of the Big Sur Valley, panoramic vistas of beautifully isolated sandy beaches, a narrow section of winding rutted eroded poison oak lined sand track, and a leisurely wide path on bluffs overlooking the sea. If you don't want to tackle the whole thing for whatever reason, I suggest an out and back on the Bluff Trail and a walk on the beach from any of several obvious access points.

Looking down into Big Sur Valley and across to the Santa Lucia mountains from the Ridge Trail.

The Ridge Trail is fairly steep and straight and very exposed. On a sunny day, you would trade sharper views than we had for buckets of sweat. On this cool day with a come and go marine layer, I still produced at least half a bucket. Fortunately, that is never a big concern for me. Working up a sweat is healthy. One of the rewards of the gain in elevation was standing in a grove of beautiful redwoods near the end.

The Panorama Trail is narrow, relatively short, and switches back down toward the bluffs through a heavily eroded sandy track lined by poison oak. I leaned pretty hard on my Leki poles in that section. The panoramic vistas from here, though, were pretty awesome.

My favorite part of this hike was the Bluff Trail because of the almost constant views of kickass beaches. Again, if you want to only do one part of this loop, do the Bluff Trail. The fog didn't do justice to the attempted pictures here. Go see for yourself.

At the beginning and end of the walk, you get to cross this simple seasonal bridge across the Big Sur River, which in early Fall, is not very scary. It's fun!

Peace, Love, and Big Thanks to the Molera Family for Giving Us This Invaluable Land,

Jim