Pacific Coast Highway: Cambria to Carmel via Big Sur

About this drive

California's Highway 1 between Cambria and Carmel via Big Sur is the most famous coastal drive in the United States. The road clings to the Santa Lucia Mountains as they drop into the Pacific, running hundreds of feet above the water on sections where no flat ground exists and the engineers had no choice but to cut the road into the cliff. The Bixby Creek Bridge, built in 1932, is the most photographed bridge in California — a single-arch concrete span 260 feet above the canyon floor. Big Sur is not a town but a stretch of coastline roughly 90 miles long with almost no development. What exists is scattered: a gas station, a few restaurants, the Henry Miller Memorial Library, Esalen Institute on the cliff edge, and various campgrounds of Los Padres National Forest. The absence of commercial strip is what makes the drive feel different from most scenic roads — the landscape has not been built around. Highway 1 through Big Sur is subject to closures from landslides — sections have been closed for extended periods after major rainstorms. Check Caltrans road conditions before making a trip, particularly in winter or early spring. The drive is best in May and June before the summer coastal fog establishes itself, or in September and October when the fog clears and the golden light on the cliffs is at its most photogenic.

Stops along the way

• 📸 Bixby Creek Bridge · Scenic Viewpoint

  One of the most photographed bridges on the California coast.