The river drains a portion of the Big Sur area, a thinly settled region of the Central California coast where the Santa Lucia Mountains rise abruptly from the Pacific Ocean.

The lower river flows roughly northwest through Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park, the Big Sur village, several private camp grounds and Andrew Molera State Park where it flows through a lagoon and sandbar into the Pacific Ocean at the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

[9] In the late 1800s, the Ventana Power Company operated a sawmill near present-day Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park.

They built a diversion channel along the Big Sur River, but the 1906 San Francisco earthquake bankrupted the company and they abandoned the project.

Along the main river canyon and many side tributaries grow riparian species such as California sycamore and white alder.

[citation needed] On higher, steep, and South-facing slopes the chaparral is found, a scrub community often dominated by chamise and manzanita.

From here, the trail climbs over 3,000 feet (910 m) to Pine Ridge, and enters the Carmel River watershed, eventually exiting the wilderness at China Camp.

As of January 2017[update], the trail is closed due to damage caused by the Soberanes Fire, the result of an illegal campfire in Garrapata State Park.