Garrapata Beach

The Big Sur beach where the calla lilies grow wild between the cliffs and the sand

Where we shoot, on a map

You may see a few photos from nearby locations here. Many shoots span multiple spots in the same session.

Where you land comes down to the session you choose. A shorter weekday session sits at the low end; a weekend session with more time and more edited photos sits at the top. There's no deposit, and you pay after the shoot, not before.

Garrapata Beach

Pick what you're planning and we'll pull up the right pricing. Not sure yet? Start with a free 10-minute call.

Hop next door for a different mood

Soberanes Trail

Coast · Cliffs

Same state park, ten minutes north. Bluff-top traverse instead of beach.

Bixby Bridge

Coast · Bridge

Ten minutes south. The bridge view that bookends most Big Sur shoots.

Garrapata Beach sits at the foot of a short trail just south of Soberanes Point, where a small valley spills calla lilies down a creek bed from February through April. The rest of the year it's a clean stretch of Big Sur sand framed by cliffs on either side. Permit-friendly for small ceremonies; quieter than the famous spots farther south.

The first thing most people notice about Garrapata Beach is that the trail down passes through a creekside field of native calla lilies — wild ones, not planted — that bloom from late January through April. For a few weeks each spring, the descent itself is the photograph. The rest of the year it's a clean Big Sur beach, but those couple of months of bloom are something you can't fake anywhere else on the coast.

The lay of the land

Make a trip out of it

Getting here

A few things about Garrapata Beach

• 01

  The calla lilies are wild, not planted. They naturalized in Doud Creek's valley from old homestead gardens and now bloom on their own every late January through April.

  — Modern Hiker / Backcountrycow
• 02

  Garrapata State Beach is one of the few Big Sur beaches with an actual ceremony permit pathway. For about $400 the state park will let you bring up to 25 people for a wedding, which is why it shows up on so many elopement-photographer guides.

  — parks.ca.gov / multiple wedding photographer guides
• 03

  The trail down crosses Doud Creek through a stretch that contains poison oak, poison ivy, and stinging nettle all in the same hundred yards. Pants are not optional in bloom season.

  — Modern Hiker / parks.ca.gov
• 04

  Garrapata State Park has no entrance kiosk, no fees, and no signs from Highway 1; the gates are numbered, not named, and locals refer to this spot as 'Gate 19' more often than 'Garrapata Beach.'

  — parks.ca.gov dog-policy notice / AllTrails
• 05

  The same park that holds this beach is named for the tick: garrapata means tick in Spanish. Multiple state-park warnings make a point of mentioning it.

  — Wikipedia / California State Parks
• 06

  Gray whales pass within sight of the bluffs above the beach during their winter migration south, with peak viewing roughly mid-December through February.

  — California State Parks

Garrapata Beach also appears as Calla Lily Valley, Garrapata State Beach, or Garapata Beach.