Big Sur Highway 1 driving road map

by Sidney van den Boogaard

Eighteen years in the making, the road along the Big Sur coast finally opened on 17 June 1937. Highway 1 runs 71 miles from Carmel Highlands to Ragged Point, carved into the flanks of the Santa Lucia Mountains where they plunge into the Pacific. Early on comes Bixby Creek Bridge, finished in 1932 and standing 280 feet above the creek. After that it is fog banks, sheer cliffs, redwood canyons and empty horizons. In 1965 it became California's first State Scenic Highway. Landslides close it every so often, which only makes it more precious. For the wall of anyone who wants all of Big Sur in one long line.

This work is part of the Petrolhead Roads collection: the world's finest driving and riding roads, from coastal routes and mountain roads to legendary ribbons of curves. Each road is drawn from the real route and finished in the same calm, graphic style, with the elevation profile and, along the bottom, the length, the road number and the facts that made the road famous.

The road is drawn from OpenStreetMap data (© OpenStreetMap contributors) and the profile from Copernicus elevation data. A great gift for anyone who would rather drive a great road than the motorway.