Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park

The park holds the redwoods along the Big Sur River, where the Pfeiffer family homesteaded, and all around is the peace and the eternal mystery of the redwoods. I wrote that once and I stand by it. There is a fee at the gate, and the drive in is worth it on its own.

Walk the river trail, swim in the pools under the redwoods in summer, and find the Homestead Cabin, built by John Pfeiffer in the eighteen-eighties and standing still. The Big Sur Lodge is inside the park, cottages under the trees with a restaurant, a pool and a store, and it is often the easiest bed on the coast to get. When the coast burns, the park and the lodge close with it, so call before you count on a night here.