Big Sur is a rugged and mountainous section of the Central Coast of California between Carmel Highlands and San Simeon. The region receives about the same number of visitors as Yosemite National Park, but offers only limited bus service, few restrooms, and a narrow two-lane highway that for most of its length clings to the steep coastal cliffs. About 60% of the coastal region is owned by governmental or private agencies which do not allow any development.
About Big Sur in brief
Big Sur is a rugged and mountainous section of the Central Coast of California between Carmel Highlands and San Simeon. The region receives about the same number of visitors as Yosemite National Park, but offers only limited bus service, few restrooms, and a narrow two-lane highway that for most of its length clings to the steep coastal cliffs. North-bound traffic during the peak summer season and holiday weekends is often backed up for about 20 miles from Big Sur Village to Carmel. About 60% of the coastal region is owned by governmental or private agencies which do not allow any development. The original Spanish-language name for the mountainous terrain south of Monterey was el país grande del sur, which means “the big country of the south” The name el Sud was first used in the Rancho El Sur land grant made in 1834. In 1915, English-speaking settlers formally adopted “Big Sur” as the name for their post office. Big Sur is not an incorporated town but a region without formal boundaries in California’s Central Coast region. Some think Big Sur State Park, whose environmental setting is extremely different from the overall coastal environment, was born in 1904 and was named for Esther Pfeiffer Ewoldson, who homesteaded the region. Most residents of the current region had little contact with the current residents of Big Sur before construction of the Carmel–San SIMEon Highway in 1937. The highway has been closed more than 55 times by landslides, and in May 2017, a 2,000,000-cubic-foot slide blocked the highway at Mud Creek, north of Salmon Creek near the San Luis Obispo County line, to just south of Gorda.
The road was reopened on July 18, 2018. The larger region known as Big Sur does not have specific boundaries, but is generally considered to include the 71-mile segment of California State Route 1 between Malpaso Creek near Carmal Highlands in the north and San Carpóforo Creek in the south. The majority of the interior region is part of the Los Padres National Forest, Ventana Wilderness, Silver Peak Wilderness or Fort Hunter Liggett. The region is often confused with the small community of buildings and services 26 miles south of Carmel in the Big Sur River valley, sometimes referred to by locals as Bigsur Village, but officially known asBig Sur. Some visitors only refer to Pfeifer Big Sur state park, whose environment setting is very different from that of the rest of the region and was created by the California Department of Game and Fish in the 1950s and 1960s. It is a popular destination for about 7 million people who live within a day’s drive and visitors from across the world, and it is among the top 35 tourist destinations world-wide. Big Sur has been called the \”longest and most scenic stretch of undeveloped coastline in the contiguous United States\”, a sublime \”national treasure that demands extraordinary procedures to protect it from development\”, and one of the most beautiful coastlines anywhere in the world.
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This page is based on the article Big Sur published in Wikipedia (as of Jan. 30, 2021) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
