Julia Pfeiffer State Park
 

How far is it from Monterey? I will be spending 3 days there and I already know I want to do Point Reyes & Aquarium in 1 day, the 17 mile drive and see Carmel another and I want to go to Big Sur, Julia Pfeiffer Park but not sure if this is possible or how far it is
thank you.

It's about an hour. I'm thinking you mean Point Lobos rather than Point Reyes, right?

Yes I am so sorry I keep getting these two confused ;). So it is possible to do Big Sur and Point Lobos in one day? are they both in the same direction?

Yes you can do both. They are about 45 minutes apart.

I was meaning that Point Lobos and Julia Pfeiffer are about 45 minutes apart.

It's easy to do...and it's SO gorgeous there. What we did was devote one day to driving down and hiking in the parks... started out at Point Lobos, then stopped at Pfeiffer-Big Sur, then Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. When at Julia Pfeiffer, be sure to take the trail that leads to the view of the McWay waterfall (a waterfall that empties right onto the beach). In my opinion, this was one of the most beautiful spots on the coast.

I've got some pictures from this day posted online if you want to take a look (and get psyched!):

http://community.webshots.com/user/carma223

Point Lobos is basically the beginning of the Big Sur region, south of there the highways begins running along the steep hills rising out of the ocean, which goes on for about 20 miles, till you reach the Big Sur River Valley, where the highway turns inland for about ten miles, then climbs out of the canyon and back up to the seaside slopes for another 50 miles or so. Julia Pfeiffer Burns and McWay Falls are about 35 miles south of Point Lobos, maybe 40 miles south of Monterey. At the moment there's a slide closing the highway south of Julia Pfeiffer-Burns park, but this won't affect your ability to get there. Still, there's more rain on the way, and slides could occur farther north, so keep checking the Caltrans site at
<http://www.dot.ca.gov/cgi-bin/roads.cgi>

Thank you for your help and CarolM thanks for the pictures. I want to make sure I use time wisely everyone here is always very helpful.
Take care.
Gina

sequoia370: thanks for the Caltrans link.

I just clicked on it and input Highway 1, there doesn't appear to be any closure south of JFB Park. Has it been fixed?

The only closure on HIghway 1 is the Devil's Slide area way north, between Pacifica and Montara. This section is going to be closed probably for a long time, - and the proposed tunnel isn't due to be finished until 2012! - which is about as much time as it took to build the entire Transcontinental Railroad, six years, mostly by hand! One can but wonder...

Great point, Easy Traveler! :-D

I was wondering about the Southern section too as I will be going up that route in a few weeks.