Salmon Creek Falls
Highway 1
Gorda, CA
One of the few big Big Sur waterfalls you can reach in fifteen minutes, and the doorway to a deep coastal wilderness behind it.
Most of Big Sur's famous waterfalls make you work for them or admire them from a distance. Salmon Creek Falls is the rare exception, a tall cascade you can reach in about fifteen minutes from the pavement. From a pull-off on a sharp bend of Highway 1 near the southern end of Big Sur, a short trail leads up to a wide curtain of water dropping roughly 120 feet over the rock.
The falls are only the front porch. Behind them, the Salmon Creek Trail climbs into the Silver Peak Wilderness, a rugged, lightly traveled corner of Los Padres National Forest where backpackers string together long loops through steep canyons. You can taste that wildness in a quarter mile or lose yourself in it for days.
What Guests Love
- A roughly 120-foot waterfall reachable by a quarter-mile walk from the highway
- Scrambling up to the base to feel the spray coming off the falls
- A quick, free stop that packs in real Big Sur scenery
- The trailhead into the wild Silver Peak Wilderness for those who want to keep going
Worth Knowing
- The falls run strongest in winter and after rain, and can thin by late summer, though the creek flows year round
- The short path to the base is rocky and involves some scrambling over boulders
- Poison oak grows thick along the trail, so stay on the path and watch what you brush
- Parking is a small pull-off on a horseshoe bend of Highway 1, so arrive early on busy weekends
Details
Gorda, CA
Learn about Salmon Creek Falls
The waterfall and the wilderness behind it
Salmon Creek drops out of the Santa Lucia Mountains and spills over a rock face close enough to the highway that you can hear it from your car on a wet day. A short, rocky path leads to the base, where the water fans across the boulders and throws spray into the air.
For those who want more, the Salmon Creek Trail continues up the canyon into the Silver Peak Wilderness, linking with the Buckeye and Cruickshank trails to form a demanding backcountry loop. It is steep, remote country with loose footing and thick brush, the kind of place that reminds you how wild this coast still is just out of sight of the road.
How the Big Sur coast was made
The Santa Lucia Range that Salmon Creek tumbles out of is one of the steepest coastal mountain fronts in the lower forty-eight, thrust up where the Pacific and North American plates grind past each other along the San Andreas system. The mountains rise so fast from the sea that creeks like this one have little room to slow down, so they arrive at the coast as waterfalls rather than lazy rivers.
This southern stretch of Big Sur is younger and rawer feeling than the redwood canyons to the north, a country of hard rock, chaparral, and sudden drops to the water.
Wildlife and plants
The canyon is classic Big Sur backcountry, home to black-tailed deer, bobcats, and the occasional mountain lion, with California condors sometimes riding the thermals overhead after their long recovery on this coast. Steller's jays and acorn woodpeckers work the oaks, and the creek supports frogs and, in wetter years, the fish the falls are named for.
The trailside plants are a lesson in coastal California: coast live oak, bay laurel, sticky monkeyflower, and, unmistakably, plenty of poison oak, which turns brilliant red in fall.
When to go
Come in the wet season, roughly December through spring, to see the falls at full force and the hills at their greenest. By late summer the flow drops, though the creek keeps running. Mornings are often foggy on this coast before the sun burns through.
As with anything in Big Sur, check Highway 1 conditions first, since storms and slides can close the road for long stretches. Bring sturdy shoes for the boulder scramble and water if you plan to push beyond the falls.
Closest Boutels
The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.
Things to Do Near Big Sur
Ragged Point
About 2 miles south
The southern gateway to Big Sur, a cliff-edge overlook with a steep trail down to a black-sand beach and its own hidden waterfall.
Jade Cove
About 5 miles north
A rocky cove where beachcombers hunt for the green Big Sur jade that washes up among the stones at low tide.
Sand Dollar Beach
About 6 miles north
One of the largest sand beaches on the Big Sur coast, in a protected crescent below the highway.