Big Sur, California, is four hours south of Napa and five hours north of Los Angeles, and appears ex nihilo, all ocean clear to the horizon, and then suddenly: a black mountain range jutting from an azure sea. The Santa Lucias are draped with green redwoods and spiky sagebrush, and carved into its severe mountainside, 300 feet over the misty, lapping ocean, is Route 1.
Today, Big Sur remains isolated, which for locals is its allure, but which also makes it vulnerable. Like much
