Sand Dollar Beach

The largest sandy beach on the Big Sur coast, tucked under the Pacific Valley shelf. Day use, no camping, but Plaskett Creek Campground is walking distance, with the Pacific Valley School standing between the beach and the campground. The crescent is sheltered enough to walk when the rest of the coast is being hammered, but respect the water.

The undertow here is real. In 2004 it took my great-grandson, Eric Barbree, thirty-one years old, the son of my granddaughter Penny, Cy's girl, and Bill Barbree, in front of the beach his people had counted as their yard, and the sea never gave him back. Swim where the lifeguards would, and watch the children.

The way down from the parking area is a stairway of ninety-nine steps, down and then up again. There is another way at the north end of the beach: a rough track my son Cy cut down the bluff with a bulldozer. It is primitive, but it spares you the steps if you would rather hike, and my grandson walked it this summer of 2026, so it is still there.

The children of the valley, fifty of them in one happy generation, counted this beach as their yard.