Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park is a state park in Monterey County, California, near the area of Big Sur on the state's Central Coast. It covers approximately 1,000 acres of land. The park is centered on the Big Sur River. To get here you travel down US Highway 1 which goes from San Diego to Seattle and is considered one of the best drives in the world. The drive thru the Big Sur area is perhaps the grandest of them all. It offers a spectacular view of the Pacific Ocean, mountains and redwoods.

Pfeiffer Beach

Pfeiffer is famous for its purple sand.….. It comes from manganese garnet in the hills being eroded and washed down the creek to the beach.

This is a magical place that is definitely worth a visit. You can only get a day pass here and when we went it was $12 but that is a small price to pay for the beauty this place has to offer.

I read somewhere that it is best to visit the morning after a storm and you will see more of the purple colors. Well that’s nice but how in the hell do plan that out? The day I visited seemed to have a good amount of color so Im not really sure how much it varies or if a storm rolled in the night before but it did the trick for me.

The Pacific Ocean

The dark blue waters of the Pacific Ocean are large and cold. To be fair it was February and 65 degrees but in the midwest it was 10 degrees and snowing so it might as well have been on the equator. When I got in the water the boys immediately went into my stomach and stayed their for the better part of the day.

The cold waves crash again and again and as time pass it erodes the massive boulders that sit gently in these waters.

Massive boulders become small structures as the rolling water pound away on the rocky beachhead. This is not the calm, turquoise waters of Caribbean Sea this is Pacific. This is the monster of the west coast and she is always angry.

Keyhole Arch

Keyhole is a fine example of the erosion at play creating a magnificent little arch. As the waves come they race thru the belly of this boulder slowly but surely making it larger. It is nature at work and it does not take days off.

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Maps of Pfeiffer Beach

Maps of Big Sur