49 Facts About Big Sur

Big Sur is a rugged and mountainous section of the Central Coast of California between Carmel and San Simeon, where the Santa Lucia Mountains rise abruptly from the Pacific Ocean.

Big Sur has been called the "longest and most scenic stretch of undeveloped coastline in the contiguous United States", a sublime "national treasure that demands extraordinary procedures to protect it from development", and "one of the most beautiful coastlines anywhere in the world, an isolated stretch of road, mythic in reputation".

Big Sur is not an incorporated town but a region without formal boundaries in California's Central Coast region.

Some visitors think Big Sur only refers to Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park, whose environmental setting is extremely different from the overall rocky coastal environment.

Author and local historian Jeff Norman considered Big Sur to extend inland to include the watersheds that drain into the Pacific Ocean.

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Big Sur's famously described Big Sur as "not a place at all but a state of mind.

Name "Big Sur" has its origins in the area's early Spanish history.

Big Sur had obtained a patent to land at the top of the grade south of the Big Sur River, where he built a home in 1867.

Big Sur is renowned worldwide for its natural features and relatively pristine scenery.

The Big Sur coast has been called the "longest and most scenic stretch of undeveloped coastline in the [contiguous] United States.

Realtor Mark Peterson commented, "Big Sur's popularity has erupted with the growth of social media.

Big Sur is the California that men dreamed of years ago, this is the Pacific that Balboa looked at from the Peak of Darien, this is the face of the earth as the Creator intended it to look.

Section of Highway 1 running through Big Sur is widely considered one of the most scenic driving routes in the United States, if not the world.

The views are one reason that Big Sur was ranked second among all United States destinations in TripAdvisor's 2008 Travelers' Choice Destination Awards.

Unlike the national park managed by a single entity, the Big Sur region is ruled over by multiple government and private land owners, offers only occasional bus service, limited parking, few restrooms, and a single, narrow two-lane highway that for most of its length clings to the steep coastal cliffs.

The entire Big Sur coast is located within the protected coastal zone established by the 1976 California Coastal Act.

Big Sur is the location of a Catholic monastery, the New Camaldoli Hermitage.

Big Sur International Marathon is an annual marathon that begins south of Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park and ends at the Crossroads Shopping Center in Carmel-by-the-Sea.

Since the race, known as the Big Sur River Run, was founded in 1971, more than $1, 025, 104 has been donated to the two organizations.

State parks in Big Sur grew out of the original residents' desire to protect and preserve the land they admired.

Big Sur has become a destination for travelers both within the United States and internationally.

Unlike Yosemite, which is managed by a single federal entity, about one-quarter of the land in Big Sur is privately owned and the remainder is managed by a conglomeration of federal, state, local, and private agencies.

In Big Sur during the summer, there is a single public bus that runs three times daily and a single shuttle van that operates on Thursday through Sunday from the Big Sur Station to Pfeiffer Beach.

One of the reasons for Big Sur's popularity is that it is only a one-day drive for about 7 million people.

Television series Big Little Lies, which is filmed in the Monterey and Big Sur area, has increased the number of visitors to the area.

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Kerouac followed Miller to Big Sur and included the rugged coast in large parts of two of his novels.

Big Sur spent a few days in early 1960 at fellow poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti's cabin in Bixby Canyon and based his novel Big Sur on his time there.

Highway is a dominant feature of the Big Sur coast, providing the primary means of access and transportation.

Policies protecting land used in Big Sur are some of the most restrictive local-use standards in California, and are widely regarded as one of the most restrictive development protections anywhere.

The population of the Esselen who lived in the Big Sur area are estimated from a few hundred to a thousand or more.

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

Big Sur's was the wife of Esteban Munras, a Monterey trader, amateur painter, and grantee of Rancho San Vicente.

Country between the shoreline and the Coast Range of mountains, running parallel with the shoreline from San Carpojoro to Point Big Sur is probably the roughest piece of coastline on the whole Pacific coast of the United States from San Diego to Cape Flattery.

Big Sur became a Mexican citizen, converted to Catholicism, and was given a Spanish name at his baptism.

Big Sur married Native American Encarnacion Vallejo and acquired considerable land, including Rancho El Sur, on which he had a cabin built in April or May 1861.

Big Sur's son added to it in 1877, when the family moved there full-time.

Big Sur filed a land patent on January 20, 1883, claiming two sections of land he already resided on near and immediately north of the mouth of Sycamore Canyon.

Big Sur began harvesting tanoak bark from the canyon, a lucrative source of income at the time.

Big Sur married Adelaide Pfeiffer, the daughter of Micheal Pfeiffer, and they raised a family there from 1906 to 1923.

Santa Lucia Mountain Range, which dominates the Big Sur region, is 140 miles long, extending from Carmel in the north to the Cuyama River in San Luis Obispo County.

Big Sur typically enjoys a mild Mediterranean climate, with a sunny, dry summer and fall, and cool, wet winter.

Big Sur later donated the land to the Monterey Bay Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America, who completed the construction of Camp Pico Blanco in 1954.

Big Sur River watershed provides habitat for mountain lion, deer, fox, coyotes, and non-native wild boars.

California Department of Fish and Game says the Little Big Sur River is the "most important spawning stream for Steelhead" distinct population segment on the Central Coast, where the fish is listed as threatened.

Big Sur residents include descendants of the original ranching families, artists, writers, service staff, along with homeowners.

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At the county level, Big Sur is represented on the Monterey County Board of Supervisors by Mary Adams.

In 2013, Jack Kerouac's novel Big Sur was adapted into a film of the same name, starring Kate Bosworth and directed by the actress' husband, Michael Polish.

In 1995, prominent environmentalist David Brower published Not Man Apart: Photographs of the Big Sur Coast, featuring Jeffers' poetry and photography of the Big Sur coast.

Apple's desktop operating system, macOS Big Sur, announced on June 22, 2020, during WWDC, is named after this region.