Garrapata State Park near Monterey

In about a quarter of a mile, the trail passes by a point where you’ll be the closest to the two large rocks located about a half mile out into the ocean.  These are called Lobos Rocks and when we visited, the left rock was almost completely covered with sea lions.  To our surprise, they weren’t all that noisy.

The trail continues south from this point for another half mile or more.  It climbs steeply over a higher cliff and then descends and heads out over another point giving great views of the rugged shoreline to the south.  When you’re walking along this area, be sure to scan the ocean often and look for wildlife.  During our hike in the morning, we saw various birds, sea otters and seals.  And, because we were there in January, we also got the added bonus of seeing lots of migrating whales heading south!  What a special treat!

Soberanes Canyon

When you’re finished with the coastline hike, return to where you parked your car,carefully cross busy Hwy 1, and start up the trail into Soberanes Canyon. This is the trailhead for our canyon hike. You’ll pass by the one and only porta-poty in the area and an old barn which is all that’s left of a large ranch from decades ago.

A short distance from the trailhead, as you head up the canyon, is a trail to the left. This is Rocky Ridge Trail. We did not take this trail but, if you like views and like a good workout (it’s steep), you can hike up as far as you’d like and then turn around or continue on and make it into a loop trail by connecting it with the Soberanes Canyon Trail. The loop route is about 5 miles roundtrip with 1,800 feet of elevation gain.

The Soberanes Canyon Trail is both easy and very rewarding. This in and out hike along the creek is a steady climb and has a roundtrip distance of about 3 miles. It starts by passing through some typical coastal chaparral and cactus-covered hillsides and then starts to change after the second big corner.

After a few creek crossings and walking alongside thicker brush, you will see the redwoods in the near distance. As soon as you walk past the first big trees, you suddenly find yourself in a dramatically different environment. The rather thick forest of redwoods has created dark, shaded, almost spooky rainforest-like atmosphere with large ferns growing along the creek side. Small waterfalls along the trail add to the soundtrack to your hike and you almost expect to see mythical creatures pop out from behind some of the lush plant life. Finding this type of environment here was so unexpected and just added that much more to the enjoyment of the hike.

We did not go all the way to the end of the trail as we were running out of daylight so we turned around where the trail was beginning a very steep incline.

Poison Oak

The vegetation in the hills of this area, along with the vegetation near the shoreline, is riddled with poison oak.  We didn’t see any on the hike along the shoreline, but we did see it scattered with other vegetation in Soberanes Canyon.  Point Lobos, just four miles to the north, is full of poison oak.  Make sure that you can easily recognize the leaves of poison oak and, before getting close to any vegetation, make sure to check for those classic leaves of three that are shiny sometimes red.

As you can see in these examples, poison oak is often hidden with other plants.  Its leave pattern of three leaves on a stem is similar to an oak tree, hence its name.  The leaves are usually shiny.  Younger leaves are bright green, whereas older leaves are red.

Trip Map