Soberanes Trail

A clifftop trail in Big Sur where the Pacific drops away beneath you.

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.

Soberanes Trail

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

Bixby Bridge

Coast · Bridge

Five minutes south on Highway 1. The iconic bridge frame that pairs with the bluffs.

Garrapata Beach

Coast · Beach

Same park, ten minutes south. The beach pocket below the bluffs.

Soberanes is the closest Big Sur destination to Carmel-by-the-Sea — twenty minutes south, no toll bridge, no winding hour through redwoods. A short clifftop walk leads to a network of bluffs, hidden coves, and headlands where the Pacific drops away beneath your feet. The classic Big Sur shot, without the Big Sur drive.

Most Big Sur proposal trips start with an hour and a half on Highway 1 through redwoods, switchbacks, and the cell-signal void. Soberanes flips that math. It's the first piece of Big Sur you hit driving south from Carmel — fifteen minutes from your hotel breakfast, ten minutes from a coffee in Carmel-by-the-Sea, and the views are already Big Sur in every direction.

The lay of the land

Make a trip out of it

Getting here

A few things about Soberanes Trail

• 01

  The trail is named for the Soberanes family, Spanish-Mexican ranchers who held this stretch of the coast in the 19th century, long before it became state-park land.

  — parks.ca.gov News Release 794
• 02

  The Spanish word garrapata means tick. The state park is literally named 'Tick State Park,' which tells you what you need to know about wearing pants on the inland trails.

  — Wikipedia / California State Parks
• 03

  Garrapata State Park has no signs, no entrance kiosk, no fees, and no official parking lot. It's the only major Big Sur state park that operates almost entirely on highway pull-offs and trust.

  — parks.ca.gov
• 04

  The Rocky Ridge inland section has been closed for years due to landslide damage, so the coastal bluffs and Whale Peak are effectively the whole park for most visitors now.

  — parks.ca.gov News Release 794
• 05

  From mid-December through March the bluff doubles as a whale-watching post; gray whales pass within a few hundred yards of the rocks on their migration south to Baja and back.

  — California State Parks
• 06

  Spring brings sticky monkey flower, lupine, and yellow lizardtail across the bluffs, which is the only window where the foreground is doing as much work as the ocean.

Soberanes Trail also appears as Soberanes Point, Garrapata Bluff Trails, Garrapata State Park, or Soberanes Point Trail.