North America · Illustrated record
Pfeiffer Beach
Big Sur · United States
The short version, from the cited sources
Pfeiffer Beach hides at the end of an unmarked, winding road off Highway 1 in Big Sur, known for two things: streaks of purple sand washed down from manganese-garnet deposits in the hills, and Keyhole Arch, the pierced sea stack through which winter sunsets align. It is a beach for walking and photography rather than swimming; the water is cold, the surf is heavy and the wind is often relentless.
- Country
- United States (US)
- Region
- North America
- Sand
- Purple-streaked
- Water
- Cold, powerful open ocean
- Administrative area
- California
- Timezone
- America/Los_Angeles
- Source family
- GeoNames
- Source updated
- 2006-01-15
Names in the record
Pfeiffer Beach
- Dani's Beach
- Sycamore Beach
Awaiting editorial review
Not yet recorded for this beach
- Access and accessibility
- Facilities and lifeguards
- Seasonality and crowd pattern
- Current hazards and restrictions
- Live weather, tide and water-quality feeds
Source position
36.23857, -121.81746
The map uses the coordinate supplied by the cited record. Local access and water entry are not implied.
Direct provenance
Sources behind this record
The source’s own accuracy and completeness disclaimer applies. Submit a correction if this point represents an alias or duplicate.
- GeoNames Gazetteer ExtractGeoNames ↗
Beach features T.BCH and T.BCHS from the dated global dump; supplied as-is by GeoNames.
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 · Retrieved 2026-09-02 - OpenStreetMap beach element tagsOpenStreetMap contributors ↗
Surface, lifeguard, access, wheelchair and facility tags read from the beach's own OpenStreetMap element; the per-record citation links the element.
ODbL 1.0 · Retrieved 2026-10-04 - Wikidata beach itemsWikimedia Foundation ↗
Coordinates, administrative area, body of water, length and typed beach class read from the beach item's own statements; the per-record citation links the item.
CC0 1.0 · Retrieved 2026-10-04 - Wikipedia beach articlesWikimedia Foundation ↗
Encyclopedia articles used for the editorial summary of illustrated records; the per-record citation links the specific article.
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 · Retrieved 2026-10-04