Jade Cove — Attraction in King City

Take photos of the trails and maps before heading there. No cell coverage.

Plan your visit with the tide in mind. Go at a lower tide. Do not go during a high tide. The views from atop are worth the trip even if you're not going to make the difficult trek down.

Wear sturdy shoes, long pants.

So, the maps show the trail head down the cliff- a worn and useless wooden fence marks the spot. Take your time going down, slide on your bottom if needed. Going back up will be easier , but going down is treacherous.

The rope mentioned is there. But you won't see it till the bottom 1/3. You can use it going both down and of course up.

Once at the bottom ya gotta still take care as the rocks are SLIPPERY and you don't want to bust or twist anything down there.

Beautiful rocks, views and photos. Don't expect to find anything other than a few small jade fragments - but afterwards know you've still gone to one of California's better known and beaches that few have experienced.

Finally, I've read several trail reviews that mention the poison oak n ivy. The beginning of both the north or south trails do have heavy growth but only on the sides - I've included a photo to show you that there is plenty of space to walk without...

Do not come here near High Tide (like I did). I got advice from the wrong CA Tide Table, and got here 2 hours before peak tide. Instead refer to "SwellInfo Big Sur CA Tide Chart". My bad luck. Note: A 6 yo boy could make his way to the bottom, but that doesn't mean it should happen. There is natural spring to cross mid-trail which makes up/down tricky and below the rocks are slick (even for my Vibram soled tried and true hiking boots). You could wear tennies, but I sure wouldn't. There was a rope in 3 places on the day I visited, and 1 rope was down. You won't absolutely need them, but it makes the trail a bit easier in a couple of spots. Many folks don't know "the" trail down, so I will say this. Walk along the cliffs above (on the trail) until you find 4 or 5 big fence posts sticking up from the ground. That's it. I can tell that others tried to descend in other locations, and I bet that it went very badly for them. Be safe. Respect nature! And I'll be back again for...

We didn't find any jade, but it was fun looking for it. We lost time and spent about two hours out there! We found a lot of beautiful rocks that just happened to have green tints to it. Be careful if you go during this time of year! There was a lot of poison oak that had crept into the walking path. We talked to a local guy who was preparing to go free diving along the coast of Jade Cove Beach who told us that he and his friends hacked a lot of the poison oak off of the trail. I would also wear long sleeves and pants that are brightly colored because of ticks. We followed a path from a tiny, unmarked parking area that we found through downloading google maps offline (There is no service in Big Sur). From the path, we found one option to basically scale down to a rocky shore using a rope that was attached to a 2 foot metal pole. We decided that probably wouldn't be a safe way down and instead found a way down that looked like stairs made...