Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park

Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park is a state park in California, 12 miles south of Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park on California's Pacific coast. A main feature of the park is McWay Falls, which drops over a cliff of 80 feet into the Pacific Ocean. The park is also home to 300-foot redwoods which are over 2,500 years old. The park is named after Julia Pfeiffer Burns, a respected resident and rancher in the Big Sur region in the early 20th century, who lived in the area for much of her life until her death in 1928. The 3,762-acre park was established in 1962.
The park is located on land originally called the Saddle Rock Ranch. Christopher and Rachel McWay homesteaded the property in the late 1870s. In 1924, former U.S. Representative Lathrop Brown and his wife Hélène bought the ranch from McWay. Julia Pfeiffer Burns, daughter of pioneer homestead Michael Pfeiffer, married John Burns in 1914 at age 47 leased pasture from the Browns. A daughter of the first permanent settlers in Big Sur, she and her husband leased a ranch at Burns Creek and leased pasture from the McWay’s Saddle Rock Ranch. Hélène formed a close friendship with Julia until she died in 1928.

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