South Plateau Trail (Point Lobos State Park)

The plan was to do the Bird Island Trail but it felt unsafe with 1 adult and 3 little kids, so we hiked a bit on the South Plateau Trail. We didn’t hike the entire thing because I didn’t know where it went. Turns out it’s a 0.7 mile trail from the entrance of the park to Gibson Beach/Bird Island Trail. If you want to park along Hwy 1 to avoid the entrance fee, this is the trail you would use to get to the south end of the park.

It’s been a while since I did a hike with the girls. I woke up every morning thinking we didn’t have time to go out on an adventure because I had to get caught up on everything. And guess what. I didn’t get caught up on everything. Because it’s not realistic and why can’t I remember this?

So I picked what looked like a nice quick hike at Point Lobos. According to my hiking book, the Bird Rock trail is 0.8 miles round trip and easy.

I’m realizing that you don’t know if it’s “three little kids including a 17-month old” kind of easy until you try it. And this wasn’t one of those hikes. But as usual there was something very cool about this hike even though it didn’t go as hoped.

First off, there is a nice picnic area and restroom next to the parking lot. Perfect when you have little kids in tow. Because you know even if they use the potty before you leave and it only takes you 10 minutes to drive there, they will have to go potty again the minute you pull into the parking space. It’s some kind of rule of the universe.

The sign says the trail is actually 0.52 miles. It didn’t seem that short to me. Maybe they mean one way. 

Stairs!! Our favorite!!

Eliza is definitely my kid. She refused any help and climbed the entire stairs by herself. She’s so cool.

View from the top of the stairs. I wish you could have been there with me.

Here is where things got interesting. You see up ahead where the side drops off on the right? And you see how they’ve placed those “safety” ropes (or whatever they are) that the kids are hanging onto? Well it made me nervous. I’m not sure what they were thinking when they put those ropes there. It wouldn’t prevent someone from falling but what it does is actually entice the little ones to walk right along the edge because they can’t resist holding onto them and swinging them and just touching them in general. 

I picked Eliza up as soon as I got nervous and tried to get the other two away from the ropes just as an older couple walked up behind us. 

The women said very nicely, “Please be careful. There was actually a women and toddler here one day and the little one tumbled down.”

Agghhh!! 

Her husband grabbed Charlotte’s hand and they walked with us a little ways until I decided to turn around.

The women walking with us said that China Cove, seen below, is where they film a lot of movies, like From Here to Eternity. Although, I’ve never seen that movie. 

There is a trail that leads down there but it’s currently closed.

This bridge is where we turned around and the older couples continued on their way. 

Right near the bridge there is another trail that leads to Gibson Beach and the South Plateau Trail. We decided to walk down this trail since it was inland and looked safer.

Gibson Beach. There’s also a trail leading down there. It’s open but we didn’t go.

This trail is fun! I definitely want to come back here by myself to run it. This made me happy that we had to abandon our original plans. Otherwise I might not have hiked this trail since it’s not an official hike in my book.

 I carried Eliza a lot of the way because she just wanted to sit and play in the dirt. But Ana and Charlotte ran a lot of the trail. That made my heart happy.

We kept going and then I realized we seemed to be going away from where the van was. And then I remembered that I didn’t know where this trail went. So we turned around.

I have been photo copying the pages with the trail info but I will start taking the entire book with us from now on. So if things don’t go as planned, it will be easier to find an alternative.

The girls were pretty tired on the way back and started whining. But I said “Are we awesome or are we whiney?” Ana responded meekly, “We’re awesome.” I kept making them say it until we were all laughing and that seemed to give them some energy. Thank goodness cause I was really exhausted from carrying Eliza so much.

I somehow didn’t notice that Charlotte hadn’t put socks on before we left. We had to stop at this bench again to clean out her shoes. I’m adding “make sure the kids have socks on” to my checklist.

We walked around a little more near the parking lot before we left. You can see the rope guides for a trail. Definitely not “hiking with multiple kids” friendly. But I want to come back here with the 9 yo. I think he will love it!