page_title: El Sur Ranch
section_title: Public access
hierarchical_section_title: El Sur Ranch / Public access
caption_attribution_description: Much of California coast is preserved for public access. When there is private property, it can stick out like a sore thumb, but it isn't all bad. This fence protects a large ranching operation in the Big Sur area. A way of life that is still happening.
context_page_description: The El Sur Ranch, located on the Big Sur coast of California, has been continuously operated as a cattle ranch since 1834. The approximately 7,100 acres ranch straddles Highway 1 for 6 miles from the mouth of the Little Sur River to the mouth of the Big Sur River and Andrew Molera State Park. Both the ranch and the park originally comprised the Rancho El Sur land grant given in 1834 by Governor José Figueroa to Juan Bautista Alvarado. It has been owned by the Hill family since 1955, who operate a commercial cow-calf operation.
  Upon inheriting the ranch while still in college and pressed by increasingly high property taxes, the ranch's current owner James Hill began plans to develop two percent of the property. His plans were protested by Big Sur residents whose efforts persuaded the California Coastal Commission to deny his permit. In 1997, after being denied a permit to build a 200-room hotel at the mouth of Little Sur River, he agreed to a conservation easement covering almost all of the property visible from Highway 1 at a cost of $11 million to California taxpayers.
context_section_description: The Little Sur Trail begins on the Old Coast Road within the boundaries of the El Sur Ranch. While California passed a law supporting a coastal trail within view of the ocean, the El Sur Ranch is already crossed by two public routes, Highway 1 and the Old Coast Road. Hill is opposed to another public right-of-way through the ranch.
  At the mouth of the Little Sur river are some of the largest sand dunes on the Big Sur coast. The mouth of the Little Sur River, the sand dunes, and the mile-long Little Sur River beach are within the boundaries of the El Sur Ranch, and Hill has posted no trespassing signs prominently on the fence along Highway 1. While the beach below the mean high tide line is open to the public, the law does not permit individuals to trespass on private property to reach the public beach. Individuals who trespass to reach the beach have been cited.
caption: Fence along Highway 1 enclosing the beach at the mouth of the Little Sur River
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