Highway 1 Re-route

Up until recently, we had planned to do the stretch of Highway 1 in California known as the Pacific Coast Highway. Over the winter, parts of this beautiful route have been devastated by mudslides. It is well-documented on the internet - here is one example.

The authorities are spending many millions of dollars trying to get the road fully open, but the slide at Mud Creek was so severe that it is unlikely to be open until late summer 2018. Given that we had planned to do PCH at the beginning of August, it is too risky for us to solidify our plans at this stage, so we've taken the decision to re-route that part of the trip. As lovely as PCH is, we've done it before so is not a massive spanner in the works.

We'll be doing Pinnacles National Park a day earlier, which means we have an extra day to play with. This gives us an opportunity to tick yet another National Park off our list, as we will now be doing Sequoia National Park. I wouldn't say the landslides are a blessing in disguise, given the effect they've had on the environment and the people of the area, but we are certainly looking forward to our enforced re-route!