First, it was a series of strong atmospheric rivers in January 2023 that set off a troublesome landslide, again splitting up the world-famous drive along Big Sur’s iconic coastline.
Then, a second winter of drenching storms triggered two more slides, including one that completely buried another section of California’s Highway 1 under 300,000 cubic yards of dirt, rock and debris.
To make matters worse, just weeks later Mother Nature appeared to take a bite out of a cliffside lane near the Rocky Creek Bridge.
But now, for the first time in three years, the coastal two-lane highway will be completely open for an uninterrupted drive of the roughly 100 miles between Carmel and Cambria.
Several area business owners and employees told The Times that they were informed the reopening was scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, marking an early completion of repairs that the California Department of Transportation had initially estimated wouldn’t be finished until March.
“This will be a return to normalcy,” said Ryne Leuzinger, chair of the board of directors for the Big Sur Community Assn. “2026 will be a really nice time to visit Big Sur.”
Despite several closures at different locations throughout the past three years, the last stretch of the highway that remained closed was a 6.8-mile span from just north of Lucia until about a mile south of the Esalen Institute, according to Caltrans.
Officials had been working to finalize repairs in that area, known as Regent’s slide, which is part of a particularly steep section of the coastline that faces persistent pressure from an unrelenting ocean and harsh weather.
While closures are a reoccurring feature of life in Big Sur — routinely forcing begrudging drivers to detour inland on Highway 101 or even the 5 Freeway — this was the longest stretch of time in recent history that travel along Highway 1 had remained truncated in some way.
Luckily, no businesses or communities were completely cut off by the years-long work on Regent’s slide, but many have said they noticed a dip in customers. Some people were simply unable to easily access locations north or south of the closure, while others were put off from visiting without the allure of making the full, famous road trip.
“We are lucky enough to have business year round, but we definitely have been struggling a bit the last three years,” said Zehya Hay, a supervisor at Nepenthe, a well-known restaurant and bar in Big Sur. “There’s not a day we don’t get phone calls asking about when the road is reopening, if you can drive up from the south. … It will be good to be able to tell people they can take that road trip again.”
On Tuesday, she said their staff was already getting ready for a spike in traffic on Wednesday.
“We’re anticipating our summer to start Jan. 14, 2026,” she said. “We’re excited.”
Caltrans spent an estimated $60 million to reopen the area of Regent’s slide.
But many locals understand there’s always the looming threat of another rockfall or landslide, particularly during a rainy winter, as this one has been.
“That’s always something in the back of all of our minds out here in Big Sur,” Hay said. “Whenever there’s wet weather, you kind of have that risk.”
So as the roadway reopens and life along California’s majestic, oceanside cliffs returns to a long-awaited normal, Hay said she will do what she can to ward off the next closure.
She’s knocking on wood.
