Big Sur place names · stop 6 of 43, going north

Ragged Point

Ragged Point
Ragged Point Inn, from its website — the cliffs at sunrise
Highway 1 was open along this coast when it was last checked. Caltrans' own Lane Closure System, as verified 2026-10-06. Today’s road status.

Ragged Point is the gateway. From here the road climbs and the towns end, and this is the last reliable stop for a long while, so fill your tank if you have not. In my day this was a point of cattle and fog.

Today there is an inn on it, three hundred and fifty feet above the water at the edge of the cliff, with rooms that look out to sea, a restaurant walled in glass, and a coffee bar and bakery by the road for anyone only passing through. Walk out past the buildings to what they call the portal to Big Sur, for the view people drive the whole coast for. A steep trail goes down from there to a black sand beach, a good half hour each way, and a flat path runs along the top for those who would rather watch for whales.

Stop here going north and you are ready for ninety miles of nothing. Stop here coming south and you have earned it.

Told by Mabel Plaskett, whose column Coast Trails ran in the King City Rustler’s monthly supplement from 1959 to 1964, and who was in print as early as 1941 under the pen name Belinda Brown. Her family has been on this coast since 1869. Her writing.

Ragged Point
Ragged Point Inn, from its website — A cliffside room at the Ragged Point Inn
Ragged Point
Ragged Point Inn, from its website — The restaurant deck and fire pit at the Ragged Point Inn
Ragged Point
Ragged Point Inn, from its website — Dinner at the Ragged Point Inn restaurant

The families here

Where it is

35.7807, -121.3309 — Highway 1, Big Sur coast, California.

The whole drive, spoken as you go.
Forty-three places between Carmel and San Simeon, free, and it works with no signal once it is loaded — which most of this coast has none of. Open the Big Sur guide.
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