overland

Big Sur area / July 2025

mrleniha-7406

mrleniha-7406

Trail Grom
Joined
Jul 9, 2025
Messages
4
Hello Community, I’m seeing conflicting info about whether the roads up to Prewitt Ridge Campground south of Big Sur are open. I had planned to come from King City off 101 and up that way. Does anyone know if the route (Big Sur adventure route 2) has any locked gates or if it’s open? Thanks for input and when you were last in the area
 
Thought I'd post a follow up to my own question :)

Called Monterey County and they confirmed all the roads are open in the area which is covered in the 'Big Sur Adventure Route 2'. So we are going to be up there this weekend.

We are coming in from King City and I rang up Fort Hunter Liggett. Was a little unclear how driving near that base worked. Here's what I learned for anyone else interested:

  1. You do drive through a physical checkpoint area after Jolon Road, as you turn on Nacimento Ferguson Road
  2. The checkpoint is no longer manned, so no stops
  3. The 'control area' of the base is smaller than in the past which is why there is a physical checkpoint area which you just drive straight through
  4. The person at the base did confirm that honoring posted speed limits on the base is definitely what to do, they do stop people if they think you are driving too fast
 
Get there early, I was up there on a Thursday and had to search hard for a campsite. Bring extra garbage bags, sadly, we had to pick up a ton of garbage.
 
thank you for the advise @rckjnke

we planned to leave to be near prewitt by ~3pm. do you think that's early enough? might be able to move it up a bit to arrive an hour earlier
 
thanks for the info. any idea on If the road is open from the PCH/CA1?
 
Coming from the south yes, coming from the north HWY 1 is closed and will be indefinitely
 
since i posted the original question in july I've made four trips to that area south of big sur. here's a few things I've found:

1. coming from the west through Fort Hunter Liggett is a good way. def obey speed limits near the base and don't roll through any stop signs :)
2. there are two ways up if you come from HWY 1 on the south (from San Simeon/Cambria) -- Nacimiento Ferguson road to Old Coast Road or Los Burros road to Old Coast Road
3. there's lots of other spots for camping and along Old Coast Road in addition to Prewitt Ridge, and definitely a few that are 'out of the way' and very quiet
4. depending the which way you go some of the side tracks you're going to get pinstriped. for me I am totally good with that, but that's a personal decision
5. caltrans did say Hwy1 is going to open potentially in March 2026 which should save some drive time, but also right now since its longer its seemed quiet up there...so takes longer to get there, but road closure is reducing crowds
 
mrleniha-7406 said:
since i posted the original question in july I've made four trips to that area south of big sur. here's a few things I've found:

1. coming from the west through Fort Hunter Liggett is a good way. def obey speed limits near the base and don't roll through any stop signs :)
2. there are two ways up if you come from HWY 1 on the south (from San Simeon/Cambria) -- Nacimiento Ferguson road to Old Coast Road or Los Burros road to Old Coast Road
3. there's lots of other spots for camping and along Old Coast Road in addition to Prewitt Ridge, and definitely a few that are 'out of the way' and very quiet
4. depending the which way you go some of the side tracks you're going to get pinstriped. for me I am totally good with that, but that's a personal decision
5. caltrans did say Hwy1 is going to open potentially in March 2026 which should save some drive time, but also right now since its longer its seemed quiet up there...so takes longer to get there, but road closure is reducing crowds
Click to expand...
Thanks so much. There’s a lot of conflicting information on rd status. Especially with the gov shutdown. Any chance you can dm me one or two of those quiet spots? I’m going down next week just for 1 night.
 
@Bear I would recommend investing in subscription and becoming a member. The Big Sur Adventure Route has many of these locations marked, but change is inevitably coming to Big Sur. I was just reading through the Visitor Use Management study for the Monterey Ranger District of Los Padres NF. Sounds like one of the more popular, and overused areas along the coastal corridor will be going to a reservation system with designated sites. This is all still very new and no word when this will be officially implemented.
 
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