This just in: www.hikinginbigsur.com. Big Sur is the remote stretch of California coastline south of Carmel, where Clint Eastwood used to be mayor. It has some of the most spectacular coastal scenery on this continent, and I’m just talking about what’s visible from the highway. Things get much better once you get out of the car (a useful maxim for just about everything).

This new site generally targets Highway One tourists and so far highlights a nice collection of hikes, and not only the ones that go down to the beach. Trail descriptions are in-depth, but the maps are bare-bones and won’t satisfy the topo-geeks. Jon Iverson, the site’s creator, includes cool details of sites along the way. From a description of the Tan Bark Trail and Tin House:

The Tin House has an interesting history and was built in 1944 by Lathrop Brown, a former Congressman from New York, who also built the home above McWay Falls that was finally removed in 1965. The tin came from two gas stations, and the house was fully finished inside with rich blue walls in the living room.

The story goes that when the house was completed, the Browns spent one night there and soon discovered that the tin structure made a lot of noise as it expanded and shrank with the temperature changes. They never returned.

Gotta love those stories of deluded California dreams gone awry.

The site includes an “other adventures” page pointing folks to the ever-popular elephant seal beach near San Simeon (where you can visit a castle owned by a newspaper magnate who had elephantiasis of the wallet, if you’re into that sort of thing). Since this locale is at the southern end of Big Sur, a nice bookend would be scenery-rich Point Lobos just north of the Sur.

Altogether, a well-done site. All Jon needs now is a blog to make his hiking life complete.