Big Sur’s most famed attraction may spell its downfall as concerned locals says its ‘unmanaged’ and a ‘ free-for-all’

Big Sur is either thriving or in big trouble this summer — depending on who in the idyllic strip of Pacific Coast Highway you talk to.

For sure, California’s fabled, panoramic tourist mecca is packed again. After nearly three years in which the cliffside roadway of Highway 1, aka the PCH — a muse to Beat Generation poets and Hollywood legends alike — was closed for business due to landslides, the fabled two-lane drive reopened in January to much ballyhoo from local businesses, many of which depend on tourists to earn a living.