Trail Conditions

USAGE INFO

Mode: For clarity, the 'Trail Conditions' map does not include less-needed details (dirt vs. paved roads, water sources, 'use' camps, scenic points, etc.) - instead, such information is provided by the more detailed 'Big Sur Trailmap' mode.

Clear ↭ Wilderness Freeway

Passable ↭ Clear

Difficult ↭ Passable

Impassable ↭ Difficult

Lately Lost (tread bits only)

Officially Closed to Hikers

Wilderness Freeway:
Heavily used and well maintained

Clear:
No obstacles and tread well defined

Passable:
Some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident

Difficult:
Brushy and/or many deadfalls, faint tread

Impassable:
Completely overgrown and/or tread obliterated

Trail Ratings: use my distillation of VWA (Ventana Wilderness Alliance) Trail Reports and private reports, parsing out different ratings for different trail sections - use at your own discretion. Ratings consider "defined tread" more important than "clear of brush", since knowing where the route lies is more important than the ease of following it. Clicking a trail line opens a window giving a summary and date for the latest reports, with links to the detailed trail report. Trail ratings are limited by the date of the last trail report. A summary might describe only a single trail section, so reading individual reports is suggested - and strongly suggested for "orange" or "red" trails. Red means hikers are losing the trail and not getting through, or getting through only with great difficulty, with much brush and little tread to follow. My color ratings use Ventana/SilverPeak wilderness norms, where brush grows quickly and trail maintenance is sporadic - a "passable" trail here might be considered "difficult" in other areas.

Trail

Usetrail

Open Rd

Gated Rd

Thin Lines = unrated trails/roads, shown to supply context: Dark green = unrated trail, Orange = "use trail", Violet = open public road (paved or dirt), Brown = gated road (paved or dirt) closed to vehicles. State Park trail closures are indicated, but otherwise unrated - if open, their trails should be "Passable" or better.

Hiking Closures: Magenta lines = officially closed trails (hiking not permitted) or roads officially closed to both hikers and vehicles. Magenta icons = officially closed sites (campgrounds/camps/rec.areas)

Vehicle Closures: Turquoise lines = gated roads or roads officially closed to vehicles (but not closed to hikers). For longer-term closures of roads normally open, a barrier Separated barrier

icon is also displayed. Note: due to road scraping budget limitations, Monterey County has been officially "closing" some dirt roads with a "soft" closure - they are still being driven (carefully with 4WD when dry, with the usual cautions) by residents and others - such are shown in turquoise with a separated-barrier Separated barrier

icon.

Gold Overlay = USFS wilderness areas

Gray Overlay = wildfires burn area

SHOW⇄HIDE Show/Hide Button: switches between 'show' vs. 'hide' of interactive buttons and legend, to provide more map area when desired.

Trail Conditions⇄Big Sur Trailmap Mode Button: displayed when interactive buttons are hidden, to quickly switch between 'conditions' vs. 'details' modes.

🔍 Search

Place Name Search (if not visible, click SHOW button) Limited to place names in Big Sur region, partial name searches allowed - all matches containing the search phrase will be displayed. Clicking on a found name will mark and move to that location. If no Big Sur Trailmap match found, gives Google search results, with location, for Big Sur region. VERY USEFUL if unfamiliar with Big Sur but do know a (partial) trail or place name If unsure of entire name or spelling, use a partial word/name - e.g. 'Bot' or 'chers' or 'Gap' will find 'Bottchers Gap'. Also, inputting a latitude,longitude (e.g. '36.1,‑121.5') moves map to that location.

Map-only link: For bookmarks, a map-only full-screen display (with controls initially hidden) is at: https://bigsurtrailmap.net/trailconditionsmap.html

Legend: see trail conditions legend link

Smartphone Usage: The full-screen version of the trail conditions map provides a much better small-screen experience than the map-in-a-window webpage! Suggest reading this info once, then use the full-screen map for subsequent usage.

Smartphone tips:

• SHOW⇄HIDE button gives less/more available map area by showing/hiding the interactive buttons - for small screens, the interactive buttons should hidden, displayed only when needed

• With interactive buttons hidden, a map title box appears - tapping it will switch between 'Trail Conditions' and 'Big Sur Trailmap' map modes

• Tapping the map, away from a trail or icon, removes any displayed pop-up bubble or highlighting

• Wait time can be reduced by zooming in, so fewer lines/icons are displayed

• Often works best in "landscape" orientation

Smartphone notes:

• Downloads much data so susceptible to small-screen limitations and slow display times

• Hides interactive buttons when pop-up bubble opens

• Uses larger fonts and buttons, narrower info bubbles

• No mouse "hover" display of trail or icon names

Hidden features:

• Popup info bubbles can be closed by clicking on: the map itself or a provided bubble link or the bubble's top-right corner "X" or the "Escape" key

• Entering a lat/lon ala "36.78,-123.45" in the "Search" box will place a magenta marker and center the map at that location

• Right-click/long-press on map gives more functionality, such as:

• Marker to display lat/lon of that location (can be moved with mouse drag)

• Ruler marker(s) to display distance from first marker (can be moved with mouse drag)

• URL link of current map for bookmarking or sharing (uses current map center, zoom, and mode - includes currently displayed magenta trail/camp highlighting or lat/lon marker)

• Single-page-printable 5½x7½ mi Trailmap section for downloading More section map information

• Local 10-day weather forecast for surrounding 2x2km area

Technical details:

• Map is updated weekly based on latest reports

• Zoom level maxima: 16 = "USGS Topo" & "USGS Quad" ❘ 18 = "Terrain" ❘ 20 = "Satellite".

• You can create a browser bookmark to initially display a full-screen interactive Big Sur Trailmap with customized values for the initial mode, lat/lon, zoom, and interactive button display - right-click/long-press at desired location and select 'Display Map-Specific Link URL' - for details, see link creation.

Note on Methodology

Ratings are based on VWA forum "Trail Reports", on VWA trailcrew and ranger trail reporting, and on reports received from individual hikers.

Ratings are relative to "wilderness" trail conditions where trailwork is volunteer-based, not "state park" trail conditions.

Ratings attempt to be a rough average over the section.

Ratings are based on both visibility of tread and degree of obstacles/brush, with the former considered more important.

Ratings will be overly optimistic when the latest trail report is old, since no reports are available reflecting trail degredation since then.

Ratings are generally applied between trail junctions - mostly because more detailed info is not available but also because keeping track of and inputting numerous details would increase a burden already somewhat onerous. Exceptions are made if I know of a dramatic change in conditions at some point along the section.

FYI am finding the complexity of tracking new trail reports, deciphering ratings for different sections (with differing hike directions), recording those ratings for later comparison, and inputting new ratings into the website to be a bit overwhelming and easy to make errors (278 section ratings on oct.2025) - the original detailed trail reports are your ultimate resource.

If you find an error (or for smartphone users something needing improvement) you can do your bit to help improve the map by reporting it: Trailmap Forum