Adventure 008, Hike 087 - Pirates Cove/Cave Landing

Capture California, the Game-2012

Adventure: 008, Hike 087 - Pirates Cove/Cave Landing

Team: Thing One, Thing Two

Date:  September 5, 2012

Location: Avila Beach

Hike Info:

Trail:Pirates Cove/Cave Landing

Distance: 0.8 miles

Duration: Way too long (0:36)

Elevation Rise: 230'

Description:

The last hike of our four hikes today. The four are: Guiton Loop Trail, Butterfly Grove-California Coastal Trail, Bob Jones City to the Sea Trail, and the Pirate Cove/Cave Landing Trail.

Sometimes you hit the perfect trail to end a day. This one was not. We got this trail out of Robert Stone's Day Hikes on the California Central Coast trail guide. The drive to the trailhead was promising. We took a steep, narrow, paved road—Cave Landing Road, but short to the parking lot. The book made it sound promising and our son had talked about it being a good place to have an evening bonfire. But when we got our of our car, one of the first things we noticed was that there was litter around the area. This was a prelude to the trail.



The book suggested going out to the point at Cave Landing first. The view is good—there is even a sea arch to add visual pleasure. Unfortunately, the whole area is littered with everything from paper to take-home dinner containers to condoms. Fortunately, when we moved back to the main trail and moved down it a ways, the trash problems lessened—or we got immuned to it.



The trail itself is pretty straight with a downward slope. As you approach the cliff close to the beach, you can go westward, above the actual sea caves or eastward to a path leading down to the beach. We took the later path. There are a series of steps both with wood retainers and steps cut into the embankment. We walked along the beach for a ways, when we spotted some folks playing volleyball in a more natural way and we decided that we would give them their privacy.