Andrew Molera
Directions: Take Highway 1 about 20 miles south from Carmel. Watch for the sign leading to the park entrance on your right. Latitude/Longitude: 36.2833 / -121.8333
Parking Fee: $6.00
Facilities: toilets, camping, picnic
Parking lot
Looking up the coast
The Ridge Trail gets steep
Hiking up into the fog
Looking east
In the woods
Nice woods
What a park!
Park map on the trail
Hiking down the Panorama Trail
looking South down the coast
Heading down
Further down
In the scrub brush
Almost down
On the Spring Trail
On the beach
Birds on the beach
Another view
Whip it “V”
Heading back up
On the Bluffs Trail
More Bluffs Trail
Beach at Molera Point
We had to wade across that
Your’s truly
View up on Molera Point
Headlands trail
Enjoying the view
Heading back to the cars
On 7-September-2008 I did a 9+ mile long hike with the
Stanford Outing Club at Andrew Molera State Park
Route: Creamery Meadow -> Ridge Trail -> Panorama Trail -> Spring Trail -> lunch on the beach -> Spring Trail -> Bluffs Trail -> Headlands Trail -> Trail Camp Beach Trail -> end
National Geographic TOPO! software website:
Ave GPS and TOPO! Stats
Distance hiked: 9.47 miles
Total ascent: 1420 ft
Trailhead Elevation: ~ 30 ft
Max Elevation: 1151 ft
Moving time: 4 hrs 5 min
Moving Average: 2.3 mph
Overall average: 1.7 mph
Time stopped: 1 hrs 35 min
Personal stats
Dates Hiked:
7-Sep-2008
Start time: 10:30 AM
Weather: 70’s to low 80’s
Water consumed: 2.0 liters
plus 600 ml Gatorade
Finish time: 4:10 PM
Total time: 5 hrs 40 min
Beauty: Hey, it’s Big Sur, what more do you want!
Wildlife seen: birds
Difficulty: This hike had one tough hill, well, OK, it wasn’t that bad but it was steep in parts and I sure pumped some sweat getting up it. The rest was pretty easy hiking.
I grew up in Salinas, I have lived in California all my life, and until now I had never been to Andrew Molera State Park. I’ve been to Big Sur and surrounding areas, but I had never been to Andrew Molera.
Andrew Molera is not a huge park, I’m not sure how big it is though. I might guess it is around 8000-9000 acres but who knows.
Anyway, we started the hike on the flat Creamery Meadow Trail. And then we turned onto the Ridge Trail for a climb up to an elevation of about 1150 ft. From there we hiked down the Panorama Trail to where it ends at the junction of the Bluffs Trail which runs up along the coast and the Spring Trail which heads down to the beach. We took the Spring Trail down to the beach where we relaxed and had lunch.
After lunch we headed back up the Spring Trail and then took the Bluffs Trail back to Molera Point. To get to Molera Point we had to take our boots off and wade across a little water and then hike up along the Headlands Trail. After enjoying the views we hiked back along the Trail Camp Beach Trail to the parking lot where we ended the hike.
So what did I think of the hike? This hike had a good hill to climb that goes straight up a ridge, with no switch backs, and I sure pumped some sweat getting up it. And it has some nice woods to hike through as you get to the top. And it has plenty of wide-open space with great coastal views and a beach to enjoy as well.
Andrew Molera is indeed a nice park and I enjoyed the 9+ mile hike there with the Stanford Outing Club. I’m not sure what more to say beyond that it was a good day out. Oh, and I also had a great time. Now let’s see the pictures.
