Ragged Point is a

headland A headland, also known as a head, is a coastal landform, a point of land usually high and often with a sheer drop, that extends into a body of water. It is a type of promontory. A headland of considerable size often is called a cape.Whittow, John ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

's Central Coast. It is located at the southern end of

Big Sur Big Sur () is a rugged and mountainous section of the Central Coast of California between Carmel and San Simeon, where the Santa Lucia Mountains rise abruptly from the Pacific Ocean. It is frequently praised for its dramatic scenery. Big Sur ha ...

in northern

San Luis Obispo County San Luis Obispo County (), officially the County of San Luis Obispo, is a county on the Central Coast of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 282,424. The county seat is San Luis Obispo. Junípero Serra founded the Mission ...

. The Ragged Point Inn and Resort is located in the area, which, as with much of Big Sur, features seaside cliffs, beaches, and hiking trails.

Description

Ragged Point is located in northwestern San Luis Obispo County at , about north of the

Piedras Blancas Light Station Piedras Blancas Light Station is located at Point Piedras Blancas, about west by northwest of San Simeon, California. It was added to the California Coastal National Monument in 2017. History and management The first-order Fresnel lens at Pied ...

. The rocky headland marks the southern end of the small bay where San Carpoforo Creek empties into the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

. There is a short beach just north of the outcropping called Ragged Point Beach, which is separated by a rock from the San Carpoforo Creek Beach and the San Carpoforo Creek Trail. The area around Ragged Point is home to various forms of wildlife, including

elephant seal Elephant seals are very large, oceangoing earless seals in the genus ''Mirounga''. Both species, the northern elephant seal (''M. angustirostris'') and the southern elephant seal (''M. leonina''), were hunted to the brink of extinction for oil ...

sea otter The sea otter (''Enhydra lutris'') is a marine mammal native to the coasts of the northern and eastern North Pacific Ocean. Adult sea otters typically weigh between , making them the heaviest members of the weasel family, but among the small ...

s, and birds such as the

Western snowy plover The western snowy plover (''Charadrius nivosus nivosus'') is a small wader in the plover bird family. It breeds in the southern and western United States and the Caribbean. On March 5, 1993, the western snowy plover was listed as a threatened s ...

. The area is home to the Ragged Point Inn and Resort, which is not located at the Ragged Point headland proper, but rather north on Highway 1 in a small hamlet also called Ragged Point. The resort was built by Wiley and Mildred Ramey starting in the late 1950s on property that was formerly part of the

Hearst Ranch Hearst may refer to: Places * Hearst, former name of Hacienda, California, United States * Hearst, Ontario, town in Northern Ontario, Canada * Hearst, California, an unincorporated community in Mendocino County, United States * Hearst Island, an i ...

. The modern resort includes a hotel, restaurant, and wedding facilities, and it provides access to Young Creek Beach, a black sand beach accessible by a steep hike down a cliff.

References

{{Big Sur, state=collapsed

External links

Ragged Point Inn and Resort
Headlands of California Landforms of San Luis Obispo County, California Big Sur

Description

See also

References

External links