Month: January 2019

24-hour notice of Highway 1 Temorary Closure

**24-HOUR TRAFFIC ADVISORY**

TEMPORARY CLOSURE OF HIGHWAY 1 AT MUD CREEK/PAUL’S SLIDE

MONTEREY COUNTY — Caltrans has received confirmation from National Weather Service (NOAA) data that a significant storm is in the forecast for this week including the areas of Mud Creek (PM 8.9) and Paul’s Slide (PM 21.6) on State Route 1 in the Big Sur area.

This advisory is to inform the public to be prepared for preemptive closure of the roadway scheduled for 5 pm Friday, Feb. 1 due to a significant storm. A final notice will be sent just prior to the roadway closing. Caltrans will have our Geotech, Maintenance and Construction units on call and prepared to inspect/clean up during daylight hours when the storm ends and it is safe to be onsite again.

The gates on either side of Mud Creek and Paul’s Slide will be key locked. These gates will not be manned when the highway is closed. No one, including Emergency Services or Caltrans employees will be allowed access until a proper assessment can be made and any necessary cleanup has been completed.

NOTE: These advisories apply only to the Mud Creek and Paul’s Slide areas with each closure being treated separately–both locations will close at 5 pm Friday, Feb. 1. Please stand by for additional information.

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48 hour notice of Highway 1 Closure Notice

Today’s Date: January 30, 2019

District:            05 – Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, San Benito and Santa

Cruz Counties

Contact:          Susana Z Cruz (bilingual) or Colin Jones

Phone:            (805) 549-3138 or 549-3189

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

**48-HOUR TRAFFIC ADVISORY**

POTENTIAL TEMPORARY CLOSURE OF HIGHWAY 1 AT MUD CREEK/PAUL’S SLIDE

MONTEREY COUNTY — Caltrans has received notification from National Weather Service (NOAA) data that there is a significant storm arriving in approximately 48-hours for the areas of Mud Creek (PM 8.9) and Paul’s Slide (PM 21.6) on State Route 1 in the Big Sur area.

This advisory is for travelers to be ready in the event the roadway needs to be closed due to a predicted significant storm and allow time for them to prepare for the closure including stocking up on necessary supplies and making plans.

NOTE: At the 24-hour mark, an updated traffic advisory will be sent, either confirming the full closure or providing additional information. These advisories apply only to the Mud Creek and Paul’s Slide areas with each closure being treated separately.

Tourist Tuesday, 1/29/19 –

Shaping Sustainable Tourism In Monterey County

By   (KAZU. 90.3 – NPR for the Monterey Area)

“Overtourism has impacted places like the Croatian city of Dubrovnik, where Games of Thrones was filmed. But it also pushed that destination to manage the industry more mindfully. Now in Monterey County, there’s also a push to shape the tourism industry in a more sustainable way.

Bixby Bridge has become a must-see spot on the Big Sur coast. Its concrete arches overlook the vast Pacific Ocean. Car commercials are filmed here and the bridge is featured in the opening credits of the popular HBO TV series Big Little Lies. Pictures of Bixby Bridge are all over social media apps like Instagram.

Even on a rainy weekday, dozens of tourists pull over to take selfies. Alejandro Munoz is visiting from Southern California.

“I saw it on Google, looked it up. I saw it on Instagram. I saw it on my cousin’s Snapchat. I was like I got to go here,” Munoz says.

Sometimes visitors take risks to get the perfect picture, like getting too close to steep cliffs.

“It’s a little muddy right now. So it’s a little slippery,” Munoz says.

That kind of behavior worries Butch Kronlund. He’s the Executive Director of the Community Association of Big Sur and has lived in Big Sur for nearly 30 years.

“Big Sur is a wild coast and folks get themselves in trouble all of the time. In the process of trying to get to a secluded location, they end up damaging the very resource that they’re there to look at. So that’s also a problem,” says Kronlund.

To improve tourist behavior, a group of Big Sur residents created the “Big Sur Pledge.” It’s posted online at bigsurpledge.org. The goal is to remind people to respect this popular wilderness destination. It asks them to commit to sharing the road, leaving no trace, camping only where allowed. The pledge is modeled after Hawai’i’s Pono Pledge.”

For the rest of this article see: http://www.kazu.org/post/shaping-sustainable-tourism-monterey-county

Last Night’s Excitement

Brendon had the trail meeting last night, so he was later than usual – around 7:30 pm. He found a burned out truck still smoldering and smoking right outside my front gate. This is what it looked like later, after it was completely out. Thank you John Coons and Big Sur Fire!

 

 

And how hot did it get? This hot!

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This is what it looked like this am. Can’t see the scorched bushes in these photos. Maybe later.4dc618b7-8439-4228-93ea-e1dcd16a21df52d7e94a-e9c7-4749-a9be-82f1cb3bb278

Tourist Tuesday, 1/22/19

This article was in Condé Nast. What I like about it is that it lists the problem in each area covered, speaks to what that area is doing to tackle the problem, and also what visitors can do to minimize their impact and maximize their benefits to the community they visit. What I don’t like about this article is that it is rather shallow and superficial. Why I offer it is that I hope it can get us coming up with solutions that work for us – for here – for our home.

”Tourism can provide an incredible economic boost, sure, but it can also be harmful to the environment and put pressure on local populations. This isn’t new news: All you’ve got to do is pick up your phone and scroll through the headlines to see the ways in which overtourism, or the negative effects of too many tourists visiting somewhere at once, is playing out around the globe. Few places—whether they be cities, historical sites, national parks, or entire countries—are immune.

Not all hope is lost, though. Certain destinations have addressed the problem head on, and put into place laws that preserve the rights of locals while still accommodating thousands of annual visitors. Others have gotten creative with redirecting those very visitors, or simply added restrictions meant to curtail the number (and type) of travelers. With this in mind, here’s how several destinations around the world have proposed—or put into place—measures restricting tourists.”

To read the article, go here: www.cntraveler.com/galleries/2015-06-19/barcelona-bhutan-places-that-limit-tourist-