Читать книгу Hiking & Backpacking Big Sur. Your complete guide to the trails of Big Sur, Ventana Wilderness, and Silver Peak Wilderness онлайн

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Bird Island Trail heads west to a 0.4-mile loop around Pelican Point, passing brittle granite cliffs that do battle with the pounding Pacific. Over time these cliffs crack and fault, forming caves and archways that eventually collapse, leaving spires like Bird Island. Bring your binoculars to scan the thousands of migratory and residential seabirds and shorebirds. In spring and summer the island is a nesting site for hundreds of cormorants, known for their sleek black torsos and snakelike necks. Also keep watch for sea otters floating atop the kelp forests and great blue herons surfing on the thick nearshore kelp rafts. Eventually retrace your steps to the junction with the South Plateau Trail.

As you turn inland along the South Plateau Trail, you’ll soon pass a short spur to Gibson Beach, one of the few wide, protected sandy beaches at Point Lobos. The South Plateau Trail is a nature trail, where numbered markers correspond to a pamphlet in a box at the trailhead near the entrance kiosk. When the trail forks (1.9 miles, 50'), turn left onto the Pine Ridge Trail.