SIMPLE N SIMPLE: McWay Waterfalls

Our final destination for the day as we were drivng down the Hwy 1 is

McWay Waterfall at Julia Pfeiffer Burn State Park.

This state park is named after Julia Pfeiffer Burns, a well respected pioneer woman in the Big Sur country. The park stretches from the Big Sur coastline into nearby 3,000-foot ridges.

The park is 37 miles south of Carmel on Highway 1, and 12 miles south of Pfeiffer Big Sur.

(from California State Parks Site)

The park is located on land that was originally called the Saddle Rock Ranch,

because of the rock formation that resembles a saddle in McWay Cove.

Christopher McWay and his wife Rachel originally settled the area in the late 19th century. The land passed through several owners until former U.S. House Representative Lathrop Brown and his wife Helen acquired it in 1924. The Browns constructed an elaborate stone house in McWay Cove, one of the first electrified dwellings in Big Sur, powered by the McWay stream.

They befriended Julia Pfeiffer-Burns, a local resident, and dedicated the property to her memory in their 1961 bequest to the State of California. The house was torn down as the Browns requested in their will, but some of the walls and fragments of stone staircases remain.

^{(from Wikipedia.org)}

McWay Creek drops 84 ft. off a cliff onto the beach nestled in a pretty little cove.

The great thing about McWay Falls is that it flows year-round. The waterfall is fed from underground springs on McWay Creek, and the waterfall thus has constant flow throughout the year.

The park was named after Browns friend, Julia Pfeiffer Burns, who was a pioneer and cattle ranch owner in the Big Sur area.

The path continues past the waterfall a short distance to some ruins of an old stone "waterfall house", owned by Lathrop and Helen Hooper Brown in the 1940s. Not much is left of the house.

The terrace is all that remains of Waterfall House, the residence of Lathrop and Helen Hooper Brown. When the Browns began to acquire their Big Sur acreage in 1924, Mrs. Brown became acquainted with Julia Pfeiffer Burns, the daughter of a Big Sur pioneer family. In 1962, Mrs. Brown gave the ranch to the state for use as a state park dedicated to the memory of Julia Pfeiffer Burns.