Muir Beach Overlook

Muir Beach Overlook

Chad Beale

Quick Facts

Amenities

4 listed

Parking - Auto, Picnic Table, Restroom, Scenic View/Photo Spot

Muir Beach Overlook offers spectacular views of the Pacific and rocky coastal cliffs, but bring a windbreaker! The steep stair trail out to the furthest lookout point is more than a little blustery, but well worth the view.

The overlook is a fine place for a picnic, with many tables along the side of the parking lot closest to the coast. Keep your eyes peeled, you may get lucky and catch a glimpse of migrating whales. Enjoy the quiet serenity high above the water, surrounded by cypresses, Douglas firs and chaparral. Be wary, the poison oak is no joke out here.

Coastal Defense

One feature at the overlook that you can't miss is the base end "fire control" station. Unlike a gun battery, soldiers used massive spotting scopes to keep watch on the ocean horizon for enemy ships. Any sightings were reported back to a central communications and plotting center, then relayed to nearby gun batteries should artillery be needed.

Shake, Rattle and Roll

From the overlook, you'll see rocky coastline, bluffs, sandy beaches, mountain ridges, valleys and peninsulas reaching out into the Pacific. Each of these features are the result and a clue to tumultuous geologic events. The rocks that jut out from the water just beyond the bluffs are called sea stacks.

Further inland, a careful eye will notice massive boulders dotting the hilly landscape. These boulders are part of a geologic phenomena known as mélange, a mish-mash of hard ancient sea floor deposits and lava mixed into soft mud deposits. The mélange was likely formed by giant earthquakes that tumbled rocks down into a deep sea subduction trench many tens of millions of years ago. During the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, this part of the just offshore San Andreas fault moved over 20 feet.