Jug Handle State Natural Reserve

Cutest place to get away to! OMG. It’s just absolutely BEAUTIFUL HERE! Free parking! PLEASE use the restroom before coming here. The public restrooms here are super gross. Don’t use them! Other than that, this place is WONDERFUL!

If you have few friends and a beach blanket and a volleyball or football, this is your beach. Huge, flat, contained (good for dogs that way) and pretty deserted in the off season and on non holidays.
Great break, short walk from the beach.
If you want to take a really awesome hike though, get the helpful green train map with information and checkpoints, take the trail that goes to the beach but veer off to the right and under the highway, and have fun exploring a half dozen ecological zones that are really pretty interesting, and culminate with the most interesting miniature pygmy forest (trees that are hundreds of years old but shorter than you thanks to low nutrients in the soil). It’s a great hike for kids. you see a lot of locals with their kids. you can access a half way point from a nearby residential road if you are less mobile, but the whole hike isn’t very long.

I don’t know how you could give a bad review to this place. I hadn’t been to any beach for a while. Maybe that’s why when I dropped down onto the warm sand in the pocket on this sunny day I felt like it was the best place in the world. Oh, and succulent plants attached to cliffs in amazing places, finding just enough soil to get by. Yes, a lot of beaches on the coast have that; but it was like… the best happy little plants I ever saw (please people, look don’t touch; not that you could for most of them). No, I didn’t partake of any local herbs. I’m not into that. It was just my mood I guess. Big Sur, eat your heart out. This place is gorgeous and now that I live closer to it I won’t be just dashing around trying to get back home before I’m too tired to drive.

Hidden beach and amazing dog friendly forest path (grab a green info map and head to the right of the parking lot, the numbered items on the path tell you interesting facts or plant life). The hike to the pygmy forest is an easy 2 miles and worth it. We went at 5pm and there was NO ONE on the trail, a few beach goers in the hidden beach, but otherwise the main trail was empty!

Amazing sunsets — amazing whale-​watching!
Mr & I were looking for any random pathway to take a little walk after a full day of driving around & as luck would have it, Jug Handle State Natural Reserve was the next turnoff
Nice pathway takes you out along the bluff & has a wonderful view of breaking waves all around plus a fantastic vantage point from which to watch the whales migrating by.
We saw lots of spouts & backs & even a few tails on the 2 evenings we were there… & we didn’t even have binoculars!
The sunsets were likewise nice — we had 1 clear evening so got all the oranges & pinks of the setting sun
The other evening was overcast but it allotted for better whale-​watching so it was a true win-​win
We’d recommend this stop to anyone looking for a nice, relaxing, picturesque stop

Went there in the early evening and it was deserted and absolutely loved it!

Great little secluded beach. Lots of breaker waves… not a calm beach for those with small children, though there is a small inlet/​tide pool. Lots of trails going along the cliffs and in the coastal forests. Beautiful!

Beautiful ocean views, caterpillars all over the place! Maybe it was the time we went but on our walk we saw more then a half dozen seemed a lot for us.
The cliff sides are just gorgeous and you can walk down some of the cliffs and go down to the tide pools.
Very cool, short hike from the parking lot as well.
Good place to picnic or just enjoy the California Coast!

I went to the Jughandle State Reserve after reading the review on Unilocal,it was awesome! A great trail that had a little bit of everything, redwood trees, the ocean, a creek, pygmy forest, etc… I will definitly go again!