Ragged Point (California)

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Ragged Point seen from the Ragged Point Inn. The point is not the nearest cliff, but rather the lower flat-topped outcropping in the distance. Ragged Point from Ragged Point Inn.jpg
Ragged Point seen from the Ragged Point Inn. The point is not the nearest cliff, but rather the lower flat-topped outcropping in the distance.

Ragged Point is a headland on California's Central Coast. It is located at the southern end of Big Sur in northern San Luis Obispo County. The Ragged Point Inn and Resort is located in the area, which, as with much of Big Sur, features seaside cliffs, beaches, and hiking trails. [1]

Contents

Description

Ragged Point is located in northwestern San Luis Obispo County at 35°45′35″N121°19′40″W / 35.7596892°N 121.3277061°W / 35.7596892; -121.3277061 [2] Coordinates: 35°45′35″N121°19′40″W / 35.7596892°N 121.3277061°W / 35.7596892; -121.3277061 [3] , about 7 miles (11 km) north of the Piedras Blancas Light Station. The rocky headland marks the southern end of the small bay where San Carpoforo Creek empties into the Pacific Ocean. There is a short beach just north of the outcropping called Ragged Point Beach, which is separated by a rock from the San Carpoforo Creek Beach and the San Carpoforo Creek Trail. The area around Ragged Point is home to various forms of wildlife, including elephant seals, sea otters, and birds such as the Western snowy plover. [1] [4]

The area is home to the Ragged Point Inn and Resort, which is not located at the Ragged Point headland proper, but rather 1.8 miles (2.9 km) north on Highway 1 in a small hamlet also called Ragged Point. [1] The resort was built by Wiley and Mildred Ramey starting in the late 1950s on property that was formerly part of the Hearst Ranch. [5] The modern resort includes a hotel, restaurant, and wedding facilities, and it provides access to Young Creek Beach, a black sand beach accessible by a steep hike down a 400-foot (120 m) cliff. [6]

See also

Related Research Articles

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San Luis Obispo County, officially the County of San Luis Obispo, is a county on the Central Coast of California. As of the 2010 census, the population was 269,637. The county seat is San Luis Obispo.

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Central Coast (California) Region in California, United States

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Lopez Lake

Lopez Lake is a reservoir near the city of Arroyo Grande in San Luis Obispo County, California. The lake is formed by Lopez Dam on Arroyo Grande Creek, 9 mi (14 km) upstream from the Pacific Ocean. The creek drains about 60 sq mi (160 km2) above the dam and 90 sq mi (230 km2) below. The dam was built in 1969 and is operated by the San Luis Obispo County Flood Control and Water Conservation District. The earth-fill dam was retrofitted to protect against earthquakes between 2001 and 2003. The lake's capacity is 49,200 acre⋅ft (60,700,000 m3).

Ventana Wilderness Protected wilderness area in California, United States

The Ventana Wilderness of Los Padres National Forest is a federally designated wilderness area located in the Santa Lucia Range along the Central Coast of California. This wilderness was established in 1969 when the Ventana Wilderness Act redesignated the 55,800-acre (22,600 ha) Ventana Primitive Area as the Ventana Wilderness and added land, totalling 98,000 acres (40,000 ha). In 1978, the Endangered American Wilderness Act added 61,000 acres (25,000 ha), increasing the total wilderness area to about 159,000 acres (64,000 ha). The California Wilderness Act of 1984 added about 2,750 acres (1,113 ha). The Los Padres Condor Range and River Protection Act of 1992 created the approximately 14,500-acre (5,900 ha) Silver Peak Wilderness and added about 38,800 acres (15,700 ha) to the Ventana Wilderness in addition to designating the Big Sur River as a Wild and Scenic River. The Big Sur Wilderness and Conservation Act of 2002 expanded the wilderness for the fifth time, adding nearly 35,000 acres (14,000 ha), increasing the total acreage of the wilderness to its present size of 240,026 acres (97,135 ha).

William Randolph Hearst Memorial State Beach

William Randolph Hearst Memorial State Beach is located near the historic town of San Simeon along California State Route 1, in San Luis Obispo County, California, United States. It is named for newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst (1863–1951), whose family is closely associated with the area.

San Luis Obispo Octagon Barn

The Pereira Octagon Barn of San Luis Obispo is a historically and culturally important structure on the Central Coast of California. It was built in 1906 by Henri LaFranchi, John Damaso, and a third, unknown man. Since there were no other octagonal barns in the area, the builders may have worked from patterns of octagonal construction in farm journals or catalogs.

Rancho Piedra Blanca

Rancho Piedra Blanca was a large, 48,806-acre (197.51 km2) Mexican land grant in present-day San Luis Obispo County, California given in 1840 by Governor Juan Alvarado to José de Jesús Pico. The name means "white rock" and refers to rocks painted white by its bird population. The grant extended south along the Pacific Coast below Big Sur from Ragged Point to Pico Creek, where it adjoins Rancho San Simeon. The land grant includes the original townsite and post office for San Simeon, the Hearst Ranch headquarters, and Hearst Castle.

Cambria State Marine Conservation Area

Cambria State Marine Conservation Area (SMCA) is a marine protected area located off the coast of the city of Cambria, California on California’s central coast in San Luis Obispo County, California. The marine protected area covers 6.26 square miles (16.2 km2). Within the SMCA recreational fishing and take is allowed while commercial fishing and take of all living marine resources is prohibited.

Jade Cove is located in the southern area of Big Sur on the California central coast. There is a steep 0.1 miles (0.16 km) trail from the Plaskett Campground to Jade Cove the cove that ends in a rope-assisted drop to the beach. The beach can be dangerous during high tides and storms. The cove is 2 miles (3.2 km) south of Sand Dollar Beach and just over 3 miles (4.8 km) north of Gorda, California. I

Big Sur land use

The policies protecting land used in Big Sur are some of the most restrictive local-use standards in California, and are widely regarded as one of the most restrictive development protections anywhere. The program protects viewsheds from the highway and many vantage points, and severely restricts the density of development. About 60% of the coastal region is owned by governmental or private agencies which do not allow any development. The majority of the interior region is part of the Los Padres National Forest, Ventana Wilderness, Silver Peak Wilderness or Fort Hunter Liggett. The area is protected by the Big Sur Local Coastal Plan, which preserves it as "open space, a small residential community, and agricultural ranching." Its intention is "preserving the environment and visual access to it, the policies of the local coastal plan are to minimize, or limit, all destination activities."

San Luis Obispo Bay

San Luis Obispo Bay is a bay on the Pacific Ocean coast of San Luis Obispo County, California, about 160 miles (257 km) northwest of Los Angeles, and about 200 miles (320 km) south of San Francisco. The bay is located between Point San Luis and Shell Beach. The community of Avila Beach is located on the bay. San Luis Obispo Creek has its mouth on the bay west of Avila Beach.

Big Sur Coast Highway Scenic section of California State Route 1

Big Sur Coast Highway is a section of California State Route 1 through the Big Sur region of California that is widely considered to be one of the most scenic driving routes in the United States, if not the world. It is both a National Scenic Highway and a California Scenic Highway, and was described by Australian painter Francis McComas as the "greatest meeting of land and water in the world". Condé Nast Traveler named State Route 1 through Big Sur one of the top ten world-famous streets, comparable to Broadway in New York City and the Champs-Élysées in Paris. The road itself is a destination for visitors.

Big Sur Village, California Unincorporated community in California, United States

Big Sur is an unincorporated community village in Big Sur, Monterey County, California. It is located along a 1 mile (1.6 km) long stretch of Big Sur Coast Highway in the Big Sur Valley 24 miles (39 km) south of Carmel, California. The village contains the largest collection of shops and visitor services along the entire 71-mile (114 km) segment of California State Route 1 between Malpaso Creek near Carmel Highlands in the north and San Carpóforo Creek near San Simeon in the south. The population is about 1,463. The collection of small roadside businesses and homes is often confused with the larger region, also known as Big Sur. On March 6, 1915, United States Post Office granted the English-speaking resident's request to change the name of their post office from Arbolado to Big Sur. Caltrans also refers to the village as Big Sur.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Ragged Point Beach". CaliforniaBeaches.com. Retrieved September 9, 2019.
  2. U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Ragged Point
  3. U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Ragged Point
  4. "San Carpoforo Creek Trail". Hikesin.com. Retrieved September 9, 2019.
  5. "Our Story". Ragged Point Inn and Resort. Retrieved September 9, 2019.
  6. "Young Creek Beach at Ragged Point Inn in San Simeon, California". CaliforniaBeaches.com. Retrieved September 9, 2019.