It’s Thursday night, and you’re feeling antsy. Your legs are dying for a little weekend adventure with ocean views, redwood forests, and a campfire. It’s July, though, and you didn’t reserve a campsite at one of the several desired spots embedded along Highway 1. They’re all reserved.
Apparently people plan their summer camping trips eight months in advance. Really, eight months? Who’s got that kind of vacation vision?
First-come, first-served is always an option, but those tourists who drag rented RVs perilously down the Pacific Coast Highway don’t have to work, so those spots are usually gone, too.
Tourists are so annoying.
Big Sur’s waiting.
Ten years ago, life was different on that jagged coast. A bit less pre-planned, a bit more spontaneous. But there are still some scattered backwoods gems to pitch a tent in. Not on the coast but a few curvaceous miles inland. You still have to head out early on Friday. Leave after 5 p.m., and you’ll probably be out of luck, because, yes, there are desperados with the same idea as you, crossing their fingers and hoping a few hours in the car will give way to paradise.
Where can you find that?
Nacimiento-Ferguson Road or Palo Colorado Road. No reservations, first-come, first-served, off-the-beaten-path campgrounds are waiting for you, or whoever gets there first. And you’ll pass a gentle hike through the redwoods—called Mill Creek—along each route.
You’ll hit Nacimiento first. The turn off Highway 1 is almost directly across the road from Kirk Creek Campground. Swing a right that hairpins over a cattle guard. The road’s steep, narrow, curvy, and you’re likely to start seeing “dispersed” campers already settled or setting up in mini-turnouts alongside the road.
The Mill Creek Trail is a few curves up, a little sign on the right side of the road with a gigantic turnout on one side. It’s between 1.5 to 2 miles round-trip, depending on where you end up. You head up from the road, and then meander down into a soft, cool valley. If you want a very short backpacking trip, there are some great unofficial spots along the creek under the redwoods, tucked between clovers, ferns, and babbling water with some swimming holes deep enough to sit in.
Feel like car camping? Head for the ridgeline or find your own mini-turnout. You’ll dine with the sun setting over the Pacific and wake up to a misty morning, without a fire. About 11 miles—and it’s a slow-going, vista-filled 11 miles—up the road, Nacimiento Campground reveals itself just over the summit. It’s $15 a night, with a fire ring, bathroom, and a picnic table included.
Don’t want to pay to play? At the summit, hit the dirt road on the right. Prewitt Ridge Road. Pushing along the ridgeline, there are dispersed spots on both sides of the soft dusty trail. No fires allowed. If you want to follow this all the way, you’ll eventually hit some good-sized potholes and then Prewitt Ridge Campground, with expansive views of the Ventana Wilderness and the Pacific Ocean.
You will, however, need a California campfire permit to cook on a camp stove in the dispersed spots. Stop by your local Forest Service ranger station on the way out of town. It’s easy, and it’s free.
Palo Colorado Road is a longer drive up the coast. Past the town of Big Sur, it’s the last right-hand turn before you hit Rocky Point. Also steep, narrow, and curvy, the first few turns take you through a redwood grove interspersed with cabins and houses that will make you dream of home ownership. Your destination’s 8 miles up: Bottchers Gap, a small campground at the end of the road with views of the Ventana Double Cones in the Santa Lucia Mountains. It’s $15 a night, with a fire ring, picnic table, and vault toilets. There’s no water, so be sure to bring enough to survive. There are only three or four campsites you can drive up to, and those are usually taken. But a 30- to 50-yard walk from the parking lot leads to more spots with better privacy.
The Skinner Ridge trail leaves from the parking lot, but there’s also the Mill Creek Preserve, which you pass on the drive up Palo Colorado. It’s a pretty chill 5.5-mile round-trip hike through what’s left of an old-growth redwood preserve. Venturing through the redwoods, unfortunately, takes a tiny bit of pre-planning. A permit’s required from the Monterey Peninsula Regional Park District. An online permit can be requested two days in advance.
The permits are first-come, first-served, and the district only issues up to eight permits a day.
Either road leads you to a no-reservations paradise, that is, if you’re into that kind of thing.
Interim Editor Camillia Lanham can be reached at clanham@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jul 23-30, 2015.