McWay Falls — Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park

McWay Falls drops 80 feet onto a sandy beach cove — one of only two named tidefalls in California, and one of only eight waterfalls in the United States that flow directly into the ocean. That beach didn't exist before 1983; a landslide and highway construction deposited enough debris that the ocean shaped it into the cove visible today. The trail from Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park is short and flat, but the view from the overlook is the most photographed image in Big Sur.