[2] The park is named after Julia Pfeiffer Burns, a respected resident and rancher in the Big Sur region in the early 20th century, who lived in the area for much of her life until her death in 1928.

In 1924, former U.S. Representative Lathrop Brown and his wife Hélène were seeking an isolated point on the coast where they could build a home.

They took a horse and mule trip to the Big Sur area and found Saddle Rock Cove where a waterfall poured over the rocky bluff into the Pacific.

Saddle Rock Ranch foreman Hans Ewoldsen worked in the machine shop of the highway construction crew to build a Pelton wheel.

The multi-story house had a 16 foot wide marble staircase at its base and was decorated with fine furnishings and classic paintings.

They hadn't anticipated the metal siding and roof expanding and contracting with the daytime heat and night time cold, and the noisy popping and creaking that accompanied it.

In 1961 Hélène Hooper Brown donated the entire property to the state, stipulating that it be used as a park and named for her good friend, Julia Pfeiffer Burns, "a true pioneer."

She included the requirement that Waterfall House be converted into a "museum for the custody and display of indigenous Indian relics, flora and fauna of the California coastal area, and historical objects pertaining to the Big Sur country.".

[11][12][13] Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park has two environmental hike-in camping areas, named by Sunset magazine as one of the "four best places to pitch a tent on the Pacific Coast.

The summer 2008 California wildfires burned the upper parts of the park, but were stopped at Highway 1 and did not affect the camping sites.

In early 2009 the many non-native acacia trees around the campsites were removed in order to restore vegetation native to the Big Sur Coast.