About this permit
Andrew Molera Trail Camp is a hike-in campground: campers park in the day use parking lot and hike about a quarter mile to the campground. Trail Camp contains 22 standard tent sites and two hike-and-bike campsites, situated in a meadow near the Big Sur River. Each site has a fire pit, picnic table and food storage container, and there is potable water and restrooms with flush toilets, but no showers.
It runs on a season: the camp closes for the winter and reopens in spring. The most recently published dates were a 1 November 2025 closure and a 1 May 2026 reopening. Reservations are strongly encouraged for all campsites and there are no first-come, first-served campsites; the park says reservations fill up six months in advance. Standard campsites are $30 a night, hike and bike sites $5 with a two-consecutive-night limit, and campsites cannot be reserved online or by phone less than 48 hours prior to arrival.
No vehicles are allowed in the campground at all. One vehicle per site may park in the designated camper area of the day use lot, and RVs, towed vehicles and trailers are not permitted at the park because of limited parking space.
The route
Campers park in the day use parking lot and hike about a quarter mile to the campground. Trail Camp contains 22 standard tent sites and two hike-and-bike campsites, situated in a meadow near the Big Sur River. Each site has a fire pit, picnic table and food storage container, and the camp offers potable water and restrooms with flush toilets. There are no showers.
The beach is a seasonal proposition. Creamery Meadow Trail runs two miles round trip to the ocean beach, and to reach the trail you must cross the Big Sur River. A seasonal footbridge is put in place around June 15 and removed around October 31 each year. Outside those dates you wade, with the park advising extreme caution.
Beyond that, the Bluffs Trail runs 1.7 miles one way along the coast with no beach access until the Spring Trail spur drops to Molera Beach, and the exposed, strenuous Ridge Trail climbs 3.2 miles one way. Beach hiking from the rivermouth to Cooper Point is two miles one way and mostly low-tide only.
Why it matters
Trail Camp is a hike-in campground (campers park in the day use lot and no vehicles reach the sites), and the ocean beach is a two-mile round-trip walk on the Creamery Meadow Trail. It also closes for the winter, so the camping season is short.
