Big Sur – The campgrounds at Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park reopened Thursday for the first time since closing during last summer’s Soberanes Fire.
Only about 50 of the park’s camping sites in Main Camp will be available as the cleanup continues following flooding and landslides.
“To get a campsite, you actually have to drive into the park and get one,” said Matthew Khalar, the supervising ranger for State Parks’ Big Sur Sector. “We have reservations beginning for July 1 and it’s already booked up pretty solid beyond that point, but it’s a pretty interesting opportunity until then.”
Khalar said crews are working to evaluate what areas can safely and quickly be opened next.
“It’s just a monumental task and it’s deciding where do we start and where do we get the money to do the work,” he said.
In addition to the campsites, a small, mostly flat trail system in the area opened. The Warden’s Path, River Path, Nature Trail and Liewald Flat all opened.
“None of the kind of big-name things are going to be open right now including the Big Sur Gorge or Pfeiffer Falls,” he said. “We lost a section of the Pfeiffer Falls Trail; it slid down the hill. At the gorge we have two active rock slides.”
Brent Marshall, the Monterey District superintendent for State Parks, said Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park will likely will not be at full capacity this summer in part because some of the campsites and parking are being used for the Pfeiffer Canyon access trail built by State Parks so local residents and workers can circumvent the downed bridge on Highway 1 by foot.
Mud from the slide that compromised the support piers of the Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge, causing Caltrans to condemn and demolish the bridge, ended up on top of campgrounds and trails in the park below.
“Some of the campsites might be a few vertical feet higher in elevation than they were last year,” Marshall said. “Having an increased grade, especially in the back part near the Pfeiffer Canyon area and Post Creek, probably isn’t a bad thing.”
Along with trail and campsite restoration, work will begin soon to repair the campground road.
“Like a lot of places in Big Sur, we had mudslides coming down on top of us and also stuff sliding out from underneath,” Marshall said. “We had a bridge removed years ago and as a result of that project we only have one way in and one way out to the back of the campground, which is over half of our campsites.”
The road, which houses the sewage and potable water lines for the entire campground, was undermined.
“We narrowly avoided catastrophe there, we would have lost access to a lot of our campsites,” Marshall said.
State Parks crews will place about 60 2-ton boulders to rebuild and secure the road and the earth underneath. The work should be done in time for Memorial Day. By the Fourth of July, Marshall said State Parks hopes to have close to 90 percent of the campsites at Pfeiffer Big Sur open.
“If people are in that park, it’s one of the biggest campgrounds in the valley and it helps the businesses out too,” he said.
Up the road at Andrew Molera State Park, Khalar said State Parks hopes to have beach access opened by July 1.
“It’s in pretty bad shape,” Khalar said about the park. “It’s not just the campgrounds, it’s also the trails to the campground. The river diverted and things that used to be dry are now constantly wet and some trails are gone completely. I don’t anticipate the campsites at Molera opening this year.”
Garrapata State Park is open west of Highway 1, but it remains closed east of the highway because of Soberanes Fire damage. Point Sur State Historic Park and Lighthouse is open for guided tours.
Limekiln State Park is open to the public, but the only access to the park is via Nacimiento-Fergusson Road.
Pfeiffer Beach and Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park remain closed and inaccessible because of the Highway 1 closures. Sykes Hot Springs, the Pine Ridge Trail and much of the Monterey Ranger District portion of Los Padres National Forest in the Big Sur area will remain closed until at least Dec. 4.
“Those two landslides to the south (keeping Highway 1 closed south of Big Sur) are still throwing debris and causing problems for the cleanup effort,” Khalar said.
While a lot of trails at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park are damaged and will need repair, Khalar said most visitors only use the Overlook Trail to look at McWay Falls.
“That’s in fairly good condition,” he said of the Overlook Trail. “We could have that functional in no time. It’s the bigger hikes that we might not have available. They will be put on the master list of things that need to be fixed.”
Tommy Wright can be reached at 831-726-4375.
