The only evidence of the watercourse was a noticeable vertical trail of dry grass growing on the cliff itself. Full context of the Black Swift Falls or the ‘Ragged Point Waterfall’įurther up the jumble of rocks (making the lower portions of this waterfall more of a cascade), there was a more classical vertical drop near the top of the cliffs. I also did other scrambling further upstream on the rocky gully towards a pond, where I’d imagine the base of the Black Swift Falls (or “Ragged Point Waterfall”) would be. Black Swift Falls Trail Description – exploring the bottomĪnyways, once at the bottom, I did some rock scrambling to check out the small beach, where the lack of dry sand was an indicator that this area can be under water in high tide. That was something that I seriously considered back on our first stay in this part of Big Sur in 2001. While I took my time and other people took less time than I did on this descent, I was definitely glad in hindsight that I didn’t attempt to do this hike in Chacos or beach sandals. Looking up at the barely-visible trail leading to the base of the Black Swift Falls It took me about 25 minutes to do this descent with a pair of hiking boots and hiking pants (as I was brushing up against some craggy bushes). That was where the hike went from a rugged cliff-hanging hike into a degenerating four-limbed scramble down rocks with minor dropoffs. In any case, after getting past a shaded section where I ducked under the branches of a windswept tree, the path then descended directly to the rocky base. I’d imagine it’s a constant tug-of-war between human access and Nature reclaiming itĪnd this pattern will persist until the trail itself will become impassable from a safety standpoint (at which point Nature for sure will reclaim it). Looking up at old trail infrastructure that was now no longer in use since the current ‘trail’ bypasses it. I got the feeling that the trail will continue to be a haphazard path where Nature will reclaim some parts thereby resulting in new trails being formed. a railing on a small bridge) that the current trail now avoided. Thus, it was clear that there had been past evidence of trail infrastructure (e.g. In some parts, the trail even undulated to get around small landslips. Speaking of the trail, even though it was short from a distance standpoint (merely a quarter-mile or so in each direction), it was not easy by any stretch of the imagination! Context of the steep descent to the bottom of Black Swift Falls as this young couple (who admittedly said they weren’t prepared for it) made their attemptīasically, after the first few wooden steps from the lookout, the trail quickly degenerated into a steep, slippery, and very rugged and worn path that seemed to haphazardly traverse eroding slopes. Black Swift Falls Trail Description – the hazardous descent Therefore, in order to experience it (let alone see it), I had to make the hike to the bottom where it was possible to look directly up the gully carved out by Young Creek. The Black Swift Falls was neither visible from the property nor from its cliffside lookouts. It then steeply clung to the crumbly and rugged sea cliffs all the way to the small beach at the very bottom. Approaching the lookout of the Big Sur Coast from the Ragged Point Inn The trail leading down to the base of the waterfall began from a wedding gazeebo and lookout. The course of the intermittent Young Creek actually went through the grounds of the Ragged Point Inn Property. However, it was at the end of a particularly vicious Dry Season (yielding California’s deadliest and most damaging wildfires to date statewide) so it had no chance of flowing on this visit. It wasn’t until over 17 years later that I finally had the opportunity to do this hike. Unfortunately, we were neither well-researched nor well-prepared on that trip so we wound up not doing it. The Black Swift Falls (or “Ragged Point Waterfall” as we tended to refer to it) was an intermittent waterfall on Young Creek that we had an opportunity to visit on our very first trip to Big Sur back around the late March 2001 time frame.
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