After summer’s wildfire and winter’s heavy rains, five coastal parks in the Big Sur area remain closed indefinitely

By Mary Forgione / Los Angeles Times

If your spring break plans include hiking in the Big Sur area, it’s time to activate plan B. California state parks in the area received a double whammy in the past eight months that have kept popular coastal sites closed.

More than 130,000 acres around Big Sur were scorched by the Soberanes fire that burned from July to October last year. Heavy rains in February brought flooding and slides to the burn area, compounding the damage.

Some parks are closed indefinitely because of the fire, flooding or both.

Andrew Molera, Limekiln, Pfeiffer Big Sur and Julia Pfeiffer Burns state parks as well as Pfeiffer Beach are closed indefinitely, a parks website says.

Point Sur State Historic Park & Lighthouse has suspended tours of the lighthouse until further notice because of road closures on Highway 1, the website says.

Garrapata State Park about 18 miles north of Big Sur closed lands east of Highway 1 in summer; parts of the park on the west side are open. The park suffered a “high-intensity burn” from the fire and was slated to reopen this spring, a park news release says.

Read more

Photo Credit: Della Huff