California Hwy 1 Road Trip #1: Panther Beach

Have you heard of Panther Beach?

Whether you are or are not from California, you at some point have or will have heard of the famous Highway 1 coastal scenic drive. Highway 1 is the most well-known and photographed stretch along California’s central coast from Santa Barbara to Big Sur. It is 650 miles of coastal beauty. If you are looking for a road trip, this is the one!

There are so many stops you can make on highway 1, & each will not disappoint. Some stops are much more popular, scenic, but it’s the lesser known ones that are more special.

This is part 1 of our CA Highway 1 series: P A N T H E R beach.

Compared to Big Sur area, Panther Beach is a lesser known but popular to locals – beach, and it’s one of my favorites along Hwy 1. Panther Beach is located near Santa Cruz.

Parking and Trailhead

The parking lot is right off the highway. Maps takes you slightly after the entrance. The lot is unpaved, all mounds of dirt, and an very uneven lot. There are no specific directions or limitations to how to park, but I warn you that the further you drive up to the trail head, the more uneven the ground gets, and I am talking about big wide ditches! So if you are not in an off road vehicle like us, I would stay further back. Not only that, but since there are no limitations to how you park, there are potentials others will park in a directions blocking or one that makes exiting a bit difficult.

Just a very short walk of a few feet from the parking lot, is the rocky uneven trek down to the beach. The trek is easy as long as the ground is dry. This year, California received an enormous amount of rain so the wild flowers were still beautifully blooming all over.

The Beach

The soft yellow sand fills the beach throughout. I can’t remember where the tide stood, but it was perfect. Panther Beach is mostly flat. There are no trash cans on the beach, so pack what you can pack out. We saw some coolers of trash that are clear signs that beach goers forget they have to carry their belongings up the uneven climb or got lazy and left it behind for someone else to clean up. It is always a disgusting and sad sight to see trash on such in beautiful place.

To the left is a rocky mound and in front of that is the glorious Hole In The Wall beach. Natural bridges tend to just wow my eyes. It’s like an opening to serenity. This is definitely the photo-op area! There are not many natural bridges or hole in the wall on beaches that you can walk through, so this takes the cake! Walking through, you are then presenting with an up close view of the beautiful Pacific Ocean, the California coastal cliffs, and a glorious amount of sand. This portion of the beach is the perfect place to lay that blanket, and have a picnic.

The kids had a great time running through the hole to an even more mesmerizing beach, oceanfront, and they loved climbing these rocky cliffs!

Further left is even more to explore and take more photos of! There is just not one sight that isn’t a great photo-op area. I recommend bringing a tall tripod for some aerial like shots since drones are not allowed. We spent a great amount of time just sitting, relaxing, and listening to the crashing waves.

The kids love to use their imagination and create movie or video game scenes of their own. They even found sea glass on the beach.

Hiking

Aside from being on the beach below, you can actually hike above the beach and get some of cliff top views. The trail here can extend for a few miles if you are interested! We took this travel further down HWY 1. Stay tuned for part 2!