McWay Falls — Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park

McWay Creek drops 80 feet onto a sandy cove before reaching the Pacific — and that beach didn't exist until 1983, when a landslide and highway construction deposited enough debris for the ocean to pound into sand. Before that, the falls hit water directly. The overlook trail, short and mostly flat, follows the terrace of a house built by Lathrop and Hélène Brown, who purchased the surrounding ranch in 1924. Hélène donated the property to California in 1961. The house is gone. The falls remain.