On the California coast where the mountains cascade into the sea, a ribbon of road rides down the edge of the continent. Driving on Highway 1 is a singular experience, and this winding 70-mile stretch hugging the steep coastline of Big Sur is why bucket lists exist.
For tourists like Linda Carroll, of St. Paul, Minnesota, the feeling from driving Highway 1 is divine. “I think it’s phenomenal,” she said. “If you didn’t believe in God and you were down here, you definitely would have to, because it’s just spectacular.”
Henry Miller helped put the area on the map in the 1950s, writing in his memoir, “Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch,” “This is the California that men dreamed of years ago. … This is the face of the earth as the Creator intended it to look.”
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Kirk Gafill has spent his life on the bluffs of Big Sur, where he runs Nepenthe restaurant. Gafill’s grandparents first moved here in 1947 after Hollywood royalty moved out. They bought the property from Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles (who had purchased it a couple years prior on their honeymoon trip and then got divorced), and decided to build a restaurant. Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton filmed scenes at Nepenthe for 1965’s “The Sandpiper.”
But the true star of the show around here has always been Highway 1, opened in 1937 in a burst of optimism at the end the Great Depression. Gafill said of Highway 1, “It is the part of Big Sur that is fundamental to living here, to having a business here. And so, access is everything.”
And right now there are signs of trouble in paradise, with the road closed just south of Gafill’s restaurant. “It represents about a 30% to 35% drop in business levels,” he said. “We know these closures are going to happen. it’s just a matter of when, not if. It’s almost become an annualized event.”
Fierce storms from two back-to-back wet winters have battered the Santa Lucia Mountains, causing landslides that have buried and broken the road in four places.
Caltrans District 5 via AP
Magnus Toren, who runs the Henry Miller Memorial Library in Big Sure, said, “When the bridge fell north of here and we had a big landslide to the south, we lived in what we call the island. So, we were essentially closed off.”
Toren lives just a few miles from where Highway 1 comes to an abrupt end – closed to the south for nearly two years. Asked if he is concerned that the situation will become more precarious in the future, Toren replied, “Of course. I mean, who wouldn’t be? I’ve asked the question, can we continue to keep this highway open forever when it gets so assaulted by landslides and also fires?”
Scientists say climate change is fueling more frequent and intense wildfires, and more powerful winter storms, a potent mix that increases the risk of landslides in an area already prone to them.
In the past five years, California has spent nearly $230 million repairing just this stretch of Highway 1.
Gabrielle Lurie/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images
“That is real money, absolutely, but it’s an important roadway for California,” said Tony Tavares, director of California’s Department of Transportation. “Climate change is something that I think nationally we talk about in the distant future. Here in California, we’re experiencing it every day.”
Further up the coast, erosion forced Caltrans to move sections of Highway 1 four hundred feet inland. But along Big Sur, with mountains on one side and the Pacific on the other, there’s nowhere to go.
Tavares said the DOT is doing its best to keep Highway 1 open: “We believe it’s possible. I can tell you right now we’re not abandoning this roadway.”
Tracy asked, “Is Highway 1 simply too big to fail?”
“I would say it is too important to fail, absolutely,” Tavares replied.
And while there are certainly easier places to live, Magnus Toren says there are none more beautiful.
Tracy said, “For so many of us who come through here on a road trip, this is a once-in-a-lifetime thing; this is your everyday.”
“It is, yeah,” said Toren. “I sometimes pinch myself and think, how could I have been so lucky? Yeah, so I’m very grateful.”
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Story produced by John Goodwin. Editor: Ben McCormick.
