With its spectacular vistas of jagged cliffs and green canyons beside the Pacific Ocean, Big Sur is one of California's most popular tourist destinations, familiar to millions of people who have driven scenic Highway 1 from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Since the 1930s, it also has been a counterculture magnet for all sorts of individualists who feel as one with the bold landscape. Big Sur, residents say, is not just a place but a state of mind. Now the artists, writers, hippies and New Agers who have settled here have the place all to themselves. Freed from the quotidian travails of traffic and work, the 1,000 year-round residents of Big Sur suddenly have time for the activities that initially drew them to this untamed edge of the continent.
Musicians get together and jam on the edge of windswept cliffs.
Hikers climb on verdant hills where spring wildflowers bloom and butterflies abound. Residents dine at uncrowded restaurants, sitting at long tables pushed together to make it easier to socialize. Spontaneous bonfire parties are held on deserted beaches. Look at it. A chef at Big Sur Inn, he gestured toward a hillside of flowering fruit trees and dogwoods.