[3][4] The entrance to the Palo Colorado Road is at the former settlement at Notley's Landing and its intersection with the Big Sur Coast Highway.

The name for "The Hoist" came about because during the turn of the century sleds (nicknamed "Go-Devils") or wagon-loads of tanbark and lumber were lowered by block and tackle down the steep Murray Grade portion of the road.

A locked gate provides access to a 3.3 miles (5.3 km) long private unpaved road leading to Camp Pico Blanco.

Camp Pico Blanco, Mill Creek Redwood Preserve, the Little Sur River trailhead on the Old Coast Road, and the Bottchers Gap campground and trail head are closed.

They had a number of seasonal villages located along the Big Sur coast from near present-day Hurricane Point to the vicinity of Vicente Creek in the south, inland to the upper Carmel and Arroyo Seco Rivers.

[19] Rancho San Jose y Sur Chiquito was first granted in 1835 to Teodoro Gonzalez and re-granted by Governor Juan Alvarado the same year to Marcelino Escobar.

The ranch is located along the Little Sur River at the northwestern edge of the Ventana Wilderness adjacent to the Monterey Peninsula Regional Park District's Mill Creek Redwood Preserve, Los Padres National Forest, and includes the peak of Bixby Mountain and the upper portions of Mescal Ridge.

But some local residents thought the federal agency lacked funding required to maintain a critical fire break on the land.

[25] In late July 2020 the purchase of the 1,199 acres (485 ha) portion of the Adler Ranch successfully closed and the property was transferred to the Esselen tribe.

The bark was used to manufacture tannic acid, necessary to the growing leather tanning industry located in Santa Cruz, about 40 miles to the north.

The tanbark was harvested from the isolated trees inland, corded, brought out by mule back or using wooden sleds, and loaded by cable onto waiting vessels anchored offshore at Notley's Landing.

Swetnam and Trotter worked for the Notley brothers, who harvested Redwood in the Santa Cruz area and expanded operations to include tanbark in the mountains around Palo Colorado Canyon.

[32] A portion of land to the south of Palo Colorado Canyon formerly owned by Charles Henry Bixby was sold to a lumber company in 1986.

Their plan to harvest over a million board feet of redwood was only derailed by the savings and loan crisis, when the land was seized by federal financial regulators.

[33] The county hired a crew to build a 2.7 miles (4.3 km) trail from Palo Colorado Road to an overlook, which was completed over ten years.

Responding to concerns of canyon residents about traffic on narrow Palo Colorado Road, the county agreed to limit access to six permits per day.

[35][36] In 1906, a fire that began in Palo Colorado Canyon from the embers of a campfire burned for 35 days, scorching an estimated 150,000 acres (61,000 ha), and was finally extinguished by the first rainfall of the season.

[39] The July 2016 Soberanes Fire was caused by unknown individuals who started and lost control of an illegal campfire in the Garrapata Creek watershed.