Big Sur Jade Festival

Sand Dollar Beach is a .5 miles (0.80 km) long beach in Big Sur, California, one of the longest publicly accessible beaches on that coast. It is within the Los Padres National Forest. The beach is 3.7 miles (6.0 km) north of the small commercial center of Gorda and 38.5 miles (62.0 km) north of Cambria. It is 25 miles (40 km) south of Big Sur Village on Highway 1.

Jade Cove is located in the southern area of Big Sur on the California central coast. It contains the only concentrated underwater deposit of quality nephrite jade in the world. Individuals are permitted to collect as much jade as they can personally carry using hand tools up to 90 feet (27 m) deep offshore.

Gorda (Spanish for "Fat") is a hamlet in Monterey County, California. It is located 3 mi (4.8 km) south of Cape San Martin, at an elevation of 148 ft (45 m). It is one of the three small settlements of filling stations, restaurants, and motels located along State Route 1 on the Big Sur coast. The ZIP Code is 93920, but mail must be addressed to Big Sur, and the community is inside area code 805.

Kirk Creek Campground is a USFS campground located near Lucia, California. Near the campground is an archaeological site dating to the Middle Period of the Big Sur coast in California. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 31, 1974.

Cueva Pintada, locally known as La Cueva Pintada, (in Spanish means "the painted cave"), is a well preserved prehistoric rock shelter covered with white, red, black, and ochre pictographs created by the Salinan people. The site is protected within Fort Hunter Liggett, located about 10 miles (16 km) southwest of King City, California, United States. Cueva Pintada was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 13, 1975.

Manchester (sometimes known as Mansfield) was a mining town in the Los Burros Mining District in the southern Big Sur region of Monterey County, California from about 1875 to 1895. The town was reached by a 20 miles (32 km) road from King City to Jolon. From Jolon travelers could ride or take a stage or wagon to the Wagon Caves, followed by a difficult 14 miles (23 km) trail over the steep Santa Lucia Mountains to the site, about 4 miles (6.4 km) inland of Cape San Martin. Prospecting began in the area in the 1850s. In the spring of 1887, after 10 years of varied success, William Dugay Cruikshank discovered lode gold at the head of Alder Creek. He opened the Last Chance Mine, later known as the Buclimo Mine. The Last Chance mine produced about $62,000 (or about $1,135,000 today) in gold ore. The mines were not very productive, and most mining activity ceased by about 1895. Renewed attempts at exploiting the ore in the early 1900s failed. Cruikshank lived on the site of the town until his death in 1937.

Limekiln State Park is a California state park on the Big Sur coast. It contains four lime kilns from an 1887–1890 lime-calcining operation, plus a beach, redwood forest, and 100-foot (30 m) Limekiln Falls. It is located 2 miles (3.2 km) south of Lucia on Big Sur Coast Highway. The 711-acre (288 ha) park was established in 1994.

The Southern Redwood Botanical Area (also known as Southern Redwood Special Interest Area) is a 17 acres (6.9 ha) ecological preserve in the southern region of Big Sur in Monterey County, California, just north of the national forest's Salmon Creek trailhead. Established by the Los Padres National Forest of the United States Forest Service, it contains the southernmost naturally occurring Redwood. The trees are located in the Little Redwood Gulch watershed adjacent to the Silver Peak Wilderness. The area is just north of the Salmon Creek trailhead. In 2008, scientist J. Michael Fay published a map of the old growth redwoods based on his transect of the entire redwood range. The southernmost tree is about 15 feet (4.6 m) from Highway 1. The reserve is 7 miles (11 km) north of San Carpoforo Creek. It is unmarked and is not open to the public. The botanical area is classified as a special interest area under Title 36, Code of Federal Regulations, Section 294.1(a) due to its unique botanical resources for public and scientific purposes.

New Camaldoli Hermitage (formally called Immaculate Heart Hermitage) is a rural Camaldolese Benedictine hermitage in the Santa Lucia Mountains of Big Sur, California, in the United States. The Camaldolese branch of the Benedictine family was founded by St. Romuald in the late 10th century. The hermitage was consecrated under the Immaculate Heart of Mary and was known by that name for its first decades, but its official name is New Camaldoli. The hermitage was founded in 1958 by two monks from the motherhouse in Camaldoli in Tuscany, who had spent two years searching for a site that combined solitude and natural beauty. It is located at an altitude of approximately 1,300 feet (400 meters), and is approached by a winding road nearly two miles long, which gives the visitor a clear view of the landscape and Pacific coastline. The hermitage is located 2 miles (3.2 km) from the Big Sur Coast Highway (Highway 1), .75 miles (1.21 km) south of the Lucia Lodge. It is situated between San Luis Obispo (85 miles (137 km) to the south) and Monterey (55 miles (89 km) to the north).

Lucia is a hamlet located 22 miles (35 km) south of Big Sur Village and 38 miles (61 km) north of Hearst Castle. The area is sparsely settled The sole business active today is the Lucia Lodge alongside the Big Sur Coast Highway, one of very few lodging places along the south coast of Big Sur. Wilber Judson Harlan filed the first patent for land in the area in 1885; his family continue to own the Lodge. Until a fire in 2021, a small store and restaurant were attached to the Lodge. Lucia is miles away from any other business. Due to the remote location, gas prices are typically high.

The Santa Lucia Range (sæntə luˈsiːə) or Santa Lucia Mountains is a rugged mountain range in coastal Central California, running from Carmel southeast for 140 miles (230 km) to the Cuyama River in San Luis Obispo County. The range is never more than 11 miles (18 km) from the coast. The range forms the steepest coastal slope in the contiguous United States. Cone Peak at 5,158 feet (1,572 m) tall and three miles (5 km) from the coast, is the highest peak in proximity to the ocean in the lower 48 United States. The range was a barrier to exploring the coast of central California for early Spanish explorers.

Cone Peak is the second highest mountain in the Santa Lucia Range in the Ventana Wilderness of the Los Padres National Forest. It rises nearly a vertical mile only 3 miles (4.8 km) from the coast as the crow flies. This is one of the steepest gradients from ocean to summit in the contiguous United States. The average gradient from sea level to summit is around 33%, which is steeper than the average gradient from Owens Valley to the summit of Mount Whitney. Near the mountain summit, the oak woodland and chaparral transitions to a pine forest with a few rare Santa Lucia Firs. Junipero Serra Peak at 5,865 feet (1,788 m) is the highest peak in the coastal region. The peak is accessible by driving the Nacimiento-Fergusson Road and then turning north 6 miles (9.7 km) on Forest Route 22S05. The very rough Coast Ridge Road rises to 3,800 feet (1,200 m). The peak is a popular hiking destination. From that point the summit is 2.25 miles (3.62 km) hike along the Cone Peak Trail (4E12). There are two trails from the coast to the summit of Cone Peak: via the Stone Ridge/Gamboa Trail or the Vicente Flat Trail. The peak is topped by the decommissioned Cone Peak Lookout built in 1923. The original 13 by 13 feet (4.0 by 4.0 m) wooden-sided ground-level cab house was built on a rock foundation. It originally had a hipped "dunce cap" roof, and was called a "California Lookout" design. The building was hauled in pieces by mules up the steep and narrow 2 miles (3.2 km) trail. During World War II, it was the site of an Aircraft Warning Service observation post. In 1959. the U.S. Forest Service replaced the hipped roof with a flat roof that could be used to land a Bell-47 helicopter. The wood siding was replaced with metal which protected the structure from fire and vandalism. The lookout was last staffed in 1990. As of 2018, the building houses radio repeater equipment and cannot be easily reactivated for use as a fire tower once again. The lookout atop Cone Peak was one of six active fire lookouts in the Monterey Ranger District of the Los Padres National Forest. The others were located on Chews Ridge, Ventana Double Cone, Junipero Serra Peak, Pinyon Peak, and Three Peaks. The mountain slopes contain an old-growth Sugar pine (Pinus lambertiana) forest along with many colonies of Santa Lucia fir (Bristlecone fir, Abies bracteata), one of the rarest and most endemic fir in North America, and according to some, the world. Cone Peak was visited by notable botanists David Douglas in March 1831, Thomas Coulter in 1832 or 1833, Karl Theodor Hartweg in September 1847, and William Lobb in 1849.