On the California coast where the mountains cascade into the sea, a ribbon of road rides down the edge of the continent. Driving on Highway 1 is a singular experience, and this winding 70-mile stretch hugging the steep coastline of Big Sur is why bucket lists exist.
For tourists like Linda Carroll, of St. Paul, Minnesota, the feeling from driving Highway 1 is divine. “I think it’s phenomenal,” she said. “If you didn’t believe in God and you were down here, you definitely would have to, because it’s just spectacular.”
Henry Miller helped put the area on the map in the 1950s, writing in his memoir, “Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch,” “This is the California that men dreamed of years ago. … This is the face of the earth as the Creator intended it to look.”
Kirk Gafill has spent his life on the bluffs of Big Sur, where he runs Nepenthe restaurant. Gafill’s grandparents first moved here in 1947 after Hollywood royalty moved out. They bought the property from Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles (who had purchased it a couple years prior on their honeymoon trip and then got divorced), and decided to build a restaurant. Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton filmed scenes at Nepenthe for 1965’s “The Sandpiper.”