Iconic Pacific Coast Highway Fully Reopens After Three Years

Pacific Coast Highway is the most iconic drive in California, luring road-trippers for decades along the Golden State’s seaside route from San Diego to Northern California.

On Wednesday, the world-famous route fully reopened for the first time in three years, following consecutive landslides in the scenic Big Sur region. A nearly seven-mile stretch of the road was closed, previously, from the Regent’s Slide and Paul’s Slide.

And crews finished ahead of schedule, reopening the road 90 days earlier than expected.

Per a statement, Governor Gavin Newsom stated:

“This reopening will bring much-needed relief to small businesses and families in Big Sur and the surrounding communities who have shown remarkable resilience and strength. I’m grateful to Caltrans crews for delivering Highway 1 ahead of schedule—deploying remotely controlled heavy equipment, stabilizing slopes with thousands of steel reinforcements drilled up to 60 feet deep, and using cutting-edge monitoring systems to overcome extraordinary geological challenges while keeping workers safe. This vital corridor is the gateway to California’s coast and the lifeblood of the Big Sur economy—and today it’s restored.”

Big Sur has long been an iconic, picturesque stretch of California coastline, welcoming a reported millions of visitors each year. It’s also been a spiritual hub, with its dramatic cliffs overlooking the Pacific home to monasteries, meditation retreats, and the like.

Of course, beat generation luminary Jack Kerouac immortalized the central coast stretch with his 1962 classic, Big Sur. A personal favorite quote from that rambling piece of prose:

“We all agree it's too big to keep up with, that we're surrounded by life, that we'll never understand it, so we center it all in by swigging Scotch from the bottle and when it's empty I run out of the car and buy another one, period."