[42] The Big Sur Local Coastal Plan, approved by the Monterey County Supervisors in 1981, states that the region is meant to be an experience that visitors transit through, not a destination.

It is a gathering place for locals and has become the focal point of individuals with a literary mind,[47] a cultural center devoted to Miller's life and work, and a popular attraction for tourists.

Esalen hosted many figures of the nascent "New Age" and, in the 1960s, played an important role in popularizing Eastern philosophies, the "Human Potential Movement", and Gestalt therapy in the United States.

Far from the coast within the Los Padres National Forest, the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, accessible via a steep, narrow, 12-mile (19 km) dirt road, is only open to guests during the summer months.

It began unintentionally when Nancy Carlen, a friend of singer Joan Baez, organized a weekend seminar at the Esalen Institute in June 1964 titled "The New Folk Music".

[72] From north to south, the following state parks are in use:[73] As of January 2018[update], some trails and campsites within the following areas are closed, due to damage caused by the 2016 Soberanes Fire and the following winter's rains.

[74] Although some Big Sur residents catered to adventurous travelers in the early twentieth century,[19]: 10  the modern tourist economy began when Highway 1 opened the region to automobiles in 1937, but only took off after World War II-era gasoline rationing and a ban on pleasure driving ended in August 1945.

[101] The land use restrictions that preserve Big Sur's natural beauty also mean that visitor accommodations are limited, often expensive, and places to stay fill up quickly during the busy summer season.

There are no urban areas, just three small clusters of restaurants, gas stations, motels, and camp grounds: Posts in the Big Sur River valley, Lucia, near Limekiln State Park, and Gorda, on the southern coast.

[103][104][105] Among the places to stay and eat are the luxury Ventana Inn, Post Ranch, and the Nepenthe restaurant, built around the cabin Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth impulsively bought.

J. Smeaton Chase, who traveled on horseback up the coast in 1911, reported that a stagecoach carried passengers from Posts (then named Arbolado) to the Everett Hotel in Monterey on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

[120] The views, redwood forests, hiking, beaches, and other recreational opportunities have made Big Sur a destination for about 4.5 to 7 million people who live within a day's drive and for visitors from elsewhere in the world.

On September 13, 1769, an expedition led by Gaspar de Portolá were the first Europeans to enter the Big Sur region when they arrived at San Carpóforo Canyon near Ragged Point.

But, due to its inaccessibility, only a few small portions of the Big Sur region were included in land grants given by Mexican governors José Figueroa and Juan Bautista Alvarado.

In 1839, Alvarado granted Rancho San Jose y Sur Chiquito, also about two square leagues of land totalling 8,876-acre (3,592 ha), to Marcelino Escobar, a prominent official of Monterey.

The spurs, slopes, and canons are impenetrable ...[144][145]The first known European settler in Big Sur was John Davis who in 1853 built a cabin near the present-day site of the Mount Manuel Trail trailhead.

[155] The Santa Lucia Mountain Range, which dominates the Big Sur region, is 140 miles (230 km) long, extending from Carmel in the north to the Cuyama River in San Luis Obispo County.

The Salinian block is made up of highly fractured, and deeply weathered meta-sediments, especially biotite schist and gneiss, intruded by plutonic (granitic) rocks such as quartz diorite and granodiorite.

[174] In recent history, the area was struck by the Molera Fire in 1972, which resulted in flooding and mud flows in the Big Sur River valley that buried portions of several buildings the following winter.

[10] The many climates of Big Sur result in great biodiversity, including many rare and endangered species such as the wild orchid Piperia yadonii, which is found only on the Monterey Peninsula and on Rocky Ridge in the Los Padres forest.

[194] The high coastal mountains trap moisture from the clouds: fog in summer, rain, and snow in winter creating a favorable environment for the coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) trees found in the Big Sur region.

William Randolph Hearst was interested in preserving the uncut redwood forest, and on November 18, 1921, he purchased about 1,445 acres (585 ha) from the Eberhard and Kron Tanning Company of Santa Cruz for about $50,000.

During the Spanish period of California history, the Spaniards rarely entered the area, except to capture runaway Mission Indians or to hunt grizzly bears that ate their livestock.

Malcolm Margolin in The Ohlone Way wrote that "These enormous bears were everywhere, feeding on berries, lumbering along the beaches, congregating beneath oak trees during acorn season, and stationed along nearly every stream and creek during the annual runs of salmon and steelhead."

[204] The Monterey Herald noted on July 4, 1874: Last Monday, Captain A. Smith, who resides about ten miles from town, in the Carmel Valley, succeeded in poisoning a large grizzly bear.

In January 2022, U.S. Representative Jimmy Panetta announced that he had obtained $126 million in Federal Highway Administration funds to repair the road and rebuild the USFS Nacimiento Ranger Station destroyed in the blaze.

To the north, the Captain Cooper School serves 52 students from grades K-5 who live in the vicinity of Palo Colorado Canyon, Big Sur Village, Posts, and Slates Hot Springs.

[242] In 1964, Ballantine Books published Dark Dominion, a science-fiction novel by David Duncan describing a Magellan Project to build a spaceship called the Black Planet.

[244][245] A number of well-known films are set in Big Sur, including The Sandpiper (1965), starring Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Eva Marie Saint and Charles Bronson.

[250] The song "Bixby Canyon Bridge" from Death Cab for Cutie's album Narrow Stairs explores the narrator's visit to Big Sur, waiting for an epiphany that never comes.