Nestled in Southern Big Sur, the Salmon Creek Trail highlights many of the region’s best features. From expansive views of the Pacific Ocean and the Santa Lucia Mountains to serene forests of oaks, laurels, and pines to the rushing Salmon Creek and its waterfalls, this hike is jam-packed with beauty. However, its magnificence doesn’t come easy – be prepared for some serious elevation gain.
The Salmon Creek Trail trailhead.
The trailhead for this hike is right off Highway 1, and there are several pull-outs where you can park your car. Once ready, head to the eastern side of the road and look for a sign just south of the bridge.
The hike starts with a steady incline, so expect to break a sweat pretty quickly. You also can hear Salmon Creek roaring to your left. Soon, you’ll reach a junction. Head left and you’ll reach the Salmon Creek Falls, an impressive (albeit crowded) 120-foot waterfall. My partner and I, however, continued right up the Salmon Creek Trail, saving the falls for the way down.
Don’t let this picture fool you, the first section was steep and got us quickly sweating.
We continued to climb and, aside from the occasional backpacker or hiker, mostly had the trail to ourselves. Then, about 0.2 miles in we got our first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean and Highway 1. I was both surprised and impressed at how high we were after hiking such a short distance.
Not even a half of a mile into the hike and the views were already breathtaking.
The Silver Peak Wilderness sign.
Continuing on, you’ll re-enter a forested section and at mile 0.3 reach the Silver Peak Wilderness sign. Then, 0.2 miles further you once again are treated to even more expansive ocean and mountain views. As you ascend, you will continue to alternate between pockets of sun and shade, which helped provide a nice variety of scenery. In terms of plant life, we noticed a plethora of different plant species, including Coastal wood fern, California Blackberry, and on occasion Pacific Poison Oak. And above us providing shade were large oak trees and California bay laurels.
The views get more imprssive the higher you climb.
The exposed sections were mostly dried out when we visited in the summer.
You’ll hike deep into the Santa Lucia Mountains.
About three-quarters of a mile in, you’ll reach another junction. Stay right, and soon the trail flattens out, giving a nice break from the uphill slog. Now deeper inside the canyon, be sure to watch your step as there are several steep drop-offs. Otherwise, this section of trail was very cruisy and easy to hike.
The flat trail and shade were welcome after our first steep climb.
As you hike further into the wilderness, you’ll notice the trees starting to get larger and the foliage change. Around mile 1.15, I spotted the first pine tree of the hike, a California Torreya, which was a fun surprise.
At mile 1.8 there’s another split in the trail. Head left and follow signs for Salmon Creek Trail. Once past the marker you’ll traverse downhill for about a tenth of a mile and reach Spruce Creek Camp.
Follow the sign and head left to continue on the correct path.
Nestled along Salmon Creek, this campground is shaded and has picnic tables and fire rings for overnight visitors to use. It makes for both a good resting spot before continuing on, or a turnaround point if you’ve had enough hiking for the day.
To continue on the trail, cross the river and start climbing again. Unfortunately, there won’t be any more sections of flat, easy trail, as it’s an uphill leg burner to Estrella Camp. In fact, there are a few sections of trail that are slightly eroded away and others with very steep drop-offs, so be extra careful as you hike.
Upper Salmon Creek Falls from the trail.
At mile 2.5, look left to catch a glimpse of Upper Salmon Creek Falls. There appeared to be a path down it, but it looked sketchy and washed out, so we enjoyed its beauty from a distance and hiked on. Finally, at mile 3.1, we reached our destination, Estrella Camp.
Similar to Spruce Creek Camp, this backcountry campground was surprisingly well-kept. There was easy access to Salmon Creek and lots of shade from overhead trees. Several sites also included picnic tables and fire pits. We sat down and took a well-deserved break before working our way back.
Estrella Camp is a well-maintained and comfortable backcountry campground.
Before reaching the trailhead, we took a quick detour to check out the Salmon Creek Falls, which we skipped earlier in our hike. After spending most of the day by ourselves, we were quickly overwhelmed by the sheer amount of people we encountered trying to see the waterfall and swim in the river. While Salmon Creek Falls itself was impressive, if you’re not a fan of large crowds then I’d recommend skipping it.
Salmon Creek Falls, while impressive, was a little too crowded for us after hiking mostly in solitude.
We finally returned to our car and headed to the beach to enjoy the afternoon.
Tags: Backpacking, Big Sur, Leg-burner, Los Padres National Forest, Ocean Views, Santa Lucia Mountains, Waterfall
