Coastal Trail View of Shaw’s Agave Patch
in California · centroid 6 mi from San Diego
This stop along the trail provides a view of a patch of Shaw’s Agave (Agave shawii). This will be located to the west of the trail towards the cliff face. Please help us protect this threatened plant by staying on trail and admiring them from a distance.
Shaw’s Agave is a species very important to Cabrillo National Monument. It is incredibly rare in the United States and occurs more frequently in Baja California. Although populations of local Shaw’s Agave have vanished due to urban development, Cabrillo’s population is large and stable.
Because of Cabrillo’s Mediterranean climate, the plant can thrive in this biome. The Shaw’s Agave plant has provided the park with an excellent reason to look deeper into the pollinators of the area. The primary pollinator of the plant, the Mexican Long-tongued Bat (Choeronycteris mexicana), has not been seen in the park.
- States
- California
- Trail type
- National Monument trail
- Centroid nearest city
- San Diego, CA · 6 mi · ~10 min drive
- Centroid coords
- 32.6717°, -117.2447°
About Cabrillo National Monument
This trail is inside Cabrillo National Monument, a national monument managed by the U.S. National Park Service. Conditions, road status, trail closures, and reservation requirements are published on the park's NPS page — check it before driving in, especially in winter or during major weather events.
Entrance fee: $20 per vehicle (verify current rate on the park page). An America the Beautiful annual pass ($80) covers entrance to all NPS units.
Official NPS trail page: https://www.nps.gov/places/coastal-trail-view-of-shaw-s-agave-patch.htm
Park homepage: https://www.nps.gov/cabr/index.htm
Plan your hike
Maps + permits: long-distance trails like this often require permits for through-hiking, backcountry camping, or specific sections (especially in National Parks). Check with the maintaining organisation listed above and the relevant land manager before booking travel.
Water + supplies: water sources vary seasonally on most U.S. trails. Carry a filter and consult current trail-condition reports — through-hiker journals (PCT-L, AT Reddit, etc.) and the maintaining organisation publish regular updates.
When to go: hiking seasons vary widely with elevation, latitude, and snowpack. Through-hikers traditionally start the AT in March-April (Springer northbound) and the PCT in late April (Campo northbound). High-elevation western trails (CDT, JMT, Wonderland) generally aren't passable until July.
If you've hiked Coastal Trail View of Shaw’s Agave Patch and have current notes (water sources, trail closures, permit changes), tell us at /contact — we update pages as we learn.
Stay nearby
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Sources
Trail data on this page is compiled from OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), the maintaining organisation's public-facing materials, and Wikipedia (CC BY-SA where excerpts are quoted). Distance, terminus, and descriptive text for nationally-designated trails are hand-curated from federal land-manager websites and trail-association sources. We do not modify the underlying data; this page presents what is already publicly recorded. To suggest corrections, see our methodology page.