California's 'Mini Yosemite' Is A Dazzling State Park With Ancient Redwoods And Scenic Swimming Spots

Yosemite National Park is firmly among the most-visited natural wonders in the USA — it attracted 4.1 million people in 2024, making it the sixth most popular national park in the country overall. It's easy to see why. This is the home of those iconic, though dangerous, El Capitan hiking and climbing routes, and the fleeting February "Firefall" to name just two of its bucket-list draws. But what if there was a state park that had similar natural features — towering redwoods, gurgling rivers, sweeping forests — with just a fraction of the crowds? Cue the Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park.

Encompassing the wooded summits of the Santa Lucia Mountains as they crash down to meet the legendary Big Sur, the park is over 1,000 acres of pure wilderness. It bucks the trend of the awe-inspiring coast itinerary that many take up Highway 1 by swapping the rugged beaches for stands of soaring redwood trees and deep river gorges; natural features more common in the high Sierra Nevada than on California's coast. In fact, it recalls the wonders of Yosemite so well that one TripAdvisor reviewer concluded: "You could almost call it a mini-Yosemite. It has almost everything to offer, albeit on a smaller scale."

One upside is that it's much more accessible than the wilds of Yosemite. The main entrance is on the eastern side of the coast highway just over 30 miles south of Monterey. That puts all the hiking, wild swimming, and forest walking under a 2.5-hour drive from the San Francisco International Airport.

The presence of giant redwoods is one of the main reasons that Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park has drawn so many comparisons with Yosemite National Park. In all, the reserve counts a whopping 800 acres of chaparral shrub meadows and coastal redwood groves, marking the southernmost extent of the mighty tree's range in the Golden State.

Hiking among them is one of the top experiences available in the park. Take the Pfeiffer Falls Trail — often touted as the best route for redwood spotters — to begin your hike amid rare old-growth stands of the great trees. The route soon branches into two, with one way leading to a lookout over the Big Sur Valley and the other taking you to the gushing Pfeiffer Falls themselves, which plunge into pools that are also surrounded by giant redwoods.

You don't have to pull on the hiking boots to see the mighty specimens, though. A dedicated viewing deck offers sights of some of the biggest ones beside the main entrance to the park. What's more, there are portions of the main campsite here that are set under the shade of ancient redwoods — you'll sleep beneath giants!

There are no beaches on offer at the Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park — nearby Pfeiffer Beach is accessed via a different junction a little bit further along the coast highway. But what this park lacks in ocean it makes up for in wild rivers and hot springs. The reserve straddles the Big Sur River as it wiggles down from the Santa Lucia Mountains to join the Pacific, hiding plenty of enticing swimming spots between its borders.

Some of the best lie along the Big Sur River Gorge Trail, a short, 0.5-mile roundtrip route that takes you into a steep-sided canyon with water flowing through the middle. It's not so much a hike as it is a swim, since there are multiple points where you need to cross from one side to the other. A little up the river, you can also discover hidden pools that come with small pebble beaches.

Prefer your water nice and warm? The Pine Ridge Trail is a more hardcore hiking path for dedicated backpackers that goes from the Big Sur Station in the Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park right across the vast wilderness of the Santa Lucia Mountains. A challenging 19.6-mile section that involves scrambling, river crossings, and encounters with poison oak takes you up to the Sykes Hot Springs, a hard-to-reach set of natural hot pools shrouded by the forests and the peaks. Reward yourself after the arduous trek with a long soak in some of the best hidden hot springs in California.