Pacific Coast Highway 1 Open To Hearst Castle & Central California Coast Travel

How To Get To California Highway 1 Discovery Route, Big Sur And Carmel 

While workers blast away at rock and sediment, tourists pile into buses and pose for selfies while touring Hearst Castle.

The workers are fixing a massive landslide that has closed a part of California’s Highway 1 – or Pacific Coast Highway – until perhaps the summertime.  The tourists are enjoying the primary attraction along a roadway that is one of the world’s most scenic drives.

Despite the road closure, which is south of Big Sur, all of the primary spots tourists travel this road to see are open. And that includes Hearst Castle, part of the Highway 1 Discovery Route, as well as the cozy San Luis Obispo County towns of Cambria, Cayucos and Morro Bay with its famous rock.

Hearst Castle is in San Simeon on Highway 1. If you are traveling from the north, you can get there by taking Highway 46 West in Paso Robles, going through Cambria, then north on Highway 1. If you are traveling from the south, take the Morro Bay PCH route (Highway 41) and drive north to Hearst Castle.

What you cannot do is drive the entire 130 or so miles north from Hearst Castle to Carmel, or go from Carmel to Hearst Castle. You have to use the more inland Highway 101 and cut over to the coast (use Highway 68, the John Street exit in Salinas, to get to Carmel).

It’s a minor inconvenience, but won’t hinder your efforts to tour the splendor of Hearst Castle, visit the Highway 1 Discovery Route area, see the coastline and eat,  drink and stay in those cute towns or even go wine tasting along the southern section of Highway 1.