Pfeiffer Beach hasn't been shot for portraits yet — most clients come here for couples work. Switch to "All" to see everything.
Where we shoot, on a map
Pfeiffer Beach is the Big Sur beach with the iconic keyhole arch and patches of purple sand — the latter from manganese garnet in the cliffs above. For a few weeks in December and January, the sunset lines up directly through the arch. The rest of the year it's still one of the most photographed beaches on the West Coast, accessed by a 2.2-mile single-lane road with limited parking.
The first thing to know about Pfeiffer Beach is the road. Sycamore Canyon Road is unsigned from Highway 1 (intentionally — Big Sur locals don't want it on Google Maps), a single paved lane, 2.2 miles long, with two pullouts for passing oncoming traffic. Downhill traffic yields to uphill. It takes ten minutes to drive in and ten minutes to drive out, longer if it's busy.
The lay of the land
The Pfeiffer story I tell most often is the keyhole-alignment one. Late December session, alignment week, fifty photographers on the beach, all set up in a horseshoe around the arch. Couple was nervous — they'd planned the proposal for the alignment moment and we had about three minutes when the sun was actually threading the keyhole. I'd staged them at the spot I'd scouted ninety minutes earlier; the crowd was so dense around the arch that they couldn't see other photographers were looking at them. He proposed. She said yes. The sunburst came through the arch ten seconds later. The frame got everything: the alignment, the moment, the wide Big Sur beach behind. They thought we'd have to fight the crowd; instead the crowd became part of why the frame worked. Lesson I pass on now: Pfeiffer in alignment season can absolutely work for a proposal if you accept the conditions instead of fighting them.
Make a trip out of it
Where to stay
Getting here
A few things about Pfeiffer Beach
For about three weeks each year, roughly December 21 plus or minus a couple of weeks, the sun's path drops far enough south to set directly through the Keyhole Arch. Photographers fly across the country for this window.
— Atlas Obscura / Travel CaffeineThe purple sand is real. Manganese garnet eroding out of the cliffs above leaves lavender-pink streaks across the beach, more vivid after winter rain.
— Wikipedia / Los Padres National ForestSycamore Canyon Road, the 2.2-mile single lane that leads to the beach, is intentionally unsigned from Highway 1. Big Sur locals have lobbied to keep it off Google Maps for decades.
— Roadtripping California / Layla's LensPfeiffer Beach is in Los Padres National Forest, not a California State Park. People confuse it constantly with Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park (a mile north, no beach) and Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park (ten miles south, holds McWay Falls). Three different Pfeiffers, three different parks.
— Wikipedia / fs.usda.govThe lot holds 65 cars and the Forest Service shuts the road to incoming traffic when it fills, turning cars around at the highway. Arrive before 10am or after 4pm to avoid the gate-closed window.
— fs.usda.gov / Camp One Parks ManagementWeddings are technically not permitted at Pfeiffer from March 15 through October 15 because of the western snowy plover breeding season; small parties outside that window can sometimes get case-by-case clearance from the Forest Service.
— fs.usda.gov
Pfeiffer Beach also appears as Purple Sand Beach, Keyhole Arch, Keyhole Rock, Pheiffer Beach, or Pfeiffer Beach Day Use.