Plasket ridge is a fire road that climbs up into the mountains of Los Padres National Forest. Since this is a fire road, dispersed camping (more about dispersed camping in national forests) is allowed where you'll find numerous pull off spots up the road. In the summer time, the marine layer builds over night leading to some of the most consistently epic sunrises you'll see anywhere. If you're up here in summer, don't worry too much about sleeping in and missing sunrise, once the sun comes up, you'll start cooking in no time. This spot is also pretty well known for the swing set (location provided below) that sits in a tree growing perfectly from the center of a rolling hill. This is easily our favorite camp spot in California, so if you make it here, don't be a dick and take care of this spot. Pack out what you pack in, be respectful to your camp neighbors, and enjoy it.
This road is NOT maintained and gets pretty steep in certain sections. During the summer, the road is much more likely to get dry and completely chewed up by people that don't know what they're doing leaving pretty monstrous pot holes throughout the steeper sections. Even with higher clearance vehicles, keep some momentum through this section and do not stop and burn craters into the road trying to get momentum back. In the mornings on the way down, do your breaks a solid and go slower than you might think. Either way, you'll probably reach the bottom and smell the noticeable scent of burnt metal and rubber. You go easy on the way down, and the smell goes away pretty quickly. If not, you might be smelling it all day.
While this used to be a pretty hidden spot, it's not so much anymore. We started camping here probably 8ish years ago and could usually show up super late and still snag one of the top 3-4 spots. Nowadays, if you're driving up after the sun has gone down, good luck. There are about 3-4 prime spots and another 4-5 solid spots up the road behind that. If you're up here in the summer time on a weekend, get up to the top before the sun starts setting. Most people don't show up until after sunset so you'll be chilling as everyone else scrambles to claim the remaining spots. If you don't want to deal with the crowd, then there are other roads in this area that are less known. We aren't going to be the ones to blow these spots up so you'll have to do your own research. Normally we'd be selfish and keep this one to ourselves, but as mentioned above, cat's outta the bag.
This is the question we always get asked about this spot...so we're dropping it here so you guys stop asking. Yes, this road takes you up to the swing set you've seen on social media before. No, it's not hard to find if you make any sort of effort. However, if you refuse to make any effort, we got your back. The tree is about 100 yards after you make it up above the tree line. Should be pretty obvious as you'll be surrounded by forest for most of the drive up and all the sudden you'll escape the forest with views of the ocean to your right. Shortly after breaking free of the forest, there will be a tight U turn up a steep hill. This U turn will have a pull off area with a metal guardrail where there is almost always someone already setting up camp. This is the closest you can get in your car before you have to set out on foot for the rest of the half mile hike. You should be able to easily spot the swing from here. If that isn't enough help, here are the exact coordinates for the tree haha.
Plasket Ridge Road is one of the best dispersed camping spots near Big Sur California, just 30min south of popular spots like McWay Falls. This spot is mostly known for the swing set on the hill (location provided above). But we love this spot most for the epic sunrises in summer where the marine layer forms over night leaving a sea of clouds as far as the eye can see in the mornings. This spot used to be pretty hidden, however has gotten more popular over the years. If you plan on camping here, get up there before sunset as all the good spots get taken by the time the sun goes down. This is one of our favorite spots on the planet, so take care of it. Leave it nicer than when you showed up 🤙.