Ok, so we're about to hed to California and had planned to drive on Route 101 toward Big Sur probably sometime around July 10. My questions now b/c of the fires:

a. We will be driving up North from San Diego, will we be able to reach Hearst Castle without any problems using Route 101? I haven't seen much written about Hearst Castle and the fires.

b. Is all of Route 101 closed? If not, at what point is it closed? Could we drive up the highway and then detour onto another highway and still be able to drive up north to San Francisco?

c. Should we more than likely cancel our San Francisco portion of our trip and just stay in Southern California? Our airport is LAX?

Thanks in advance and although I'm obviously very sympathetic to the people who live in the area and what they have to put up with--- I think these fires are such a bummer to tourists too Let's all pray for rain, rain, rain!!!

right now you will have no trouble getting to hearst castle. i have not heard of 101 being closed. you could probably even go up hwy 1 to Piedras Blancas and see the elephant seals. only about 15 miles north of hearst castle. you can always get to San Francisco on 101 also.

it's hard to say what it will be like, these fires are a day to day thing. but the air quality is likely to be better in the southern part of the state, as long as no fires break out down here. after living through 2 horrific fires in san diego county i would not want to be on vacation while one is happening.

if you can be flexible with your plans i would take a wait and see attitude and decide as your trip progresses.

joyce

101 is not closed, but portions of 1--the highway that runs along the coast--are closed around Big Sur. 1 south near Hearst is open. BTW we don't get rain in the summer, if you want to pray, pray for a heavy marine layer and for the safety of the firefighters.

Here's a blog posted a couple of hours ago about the Big Sur and Carmel/Monterey areas from a visitor's perspective:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/outp...tuation-i.html

And here's a news article filed just a few minutes ago:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...,4228690.story

We just returned from a road trip from Washington (we live in So Cal), and this is what we encountered:

Hwy 1 (which is right along the coast) was closed at Big Sur. We had to back-track up to Monterey and over to Salinas and onto Hwy 101 to head south. Hwy 101 was open all the way south.

I believe Hearst Castle was far enough south of the fires to be okay, but I would call first. You might not be able to continue up Hwy 1 from there, but you can cut over to the Hwy 101 and continue up to San Francisco.

As long as you are flexible and roll with the flow, you should be okay. Have a backup plan ready - though I doubt Hwy 101 will be closed.

There are not closures between San Diego and Hearst Castle.

The closures are north of Hearst Castle on Highway 1 (not 101).

Since you're coming from the south there would not be a problem between San Diego and Hearst.

To continue further north, you'll go back to Cambria, and then take Route 46 east toward Paso Robles.

Unfortunately we don't get a whole lot of rain in the summer..it will probably November or later.

Please DO NOT pray for rain! Mudslides after fires - we don't need that!

The astute mudslide observation aside, I also was thinking (not unkindly, I hope) that one can pray all they want, but it does not rain in the CA dry season. It would be a bit like praying for snow here in MA in July...

Pray not for rain but for a heavy marine layer which is apparently (and thankfully) what is happening.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...,4228690.story

Ok my ignorant DC self will pray hard for a heavy marine layer (and the safety of the firefighters of course!)

LOL - yeah, if we get rain, it will screw up the fruit harvest. Then we will be chared and hungry

Air quality-wise, we had a bunch of fog here in San Jose this morning, which seems to have sucked up a lot of the smoke particles and after the fog burned off, we actually have some blue sky. I don't know about anyone else, but my lungs are quite relieved.

Here is an L.A. Times article filed just a couple of hours ago:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...8.story?page=2

Highway 1 is now closed for 30 miles from Limekiln State Park (north of Gorda) to Andrew Molera State Park (north of the town of Big Sur). More evacuations have been ordered for the Big Sur area.

Sadly, the Goleta fire west of Santa Barbara is looking more serious with flames within 2 miles of populated areas.

Yep. The Big Sur fire jumped the fire line and much of the area has been evacuated now. It does not look good.

The Big Sur fire has apparently swept north and then burned down to Highway One at Andrew Molera State Park, whether the village of Big Sur is still intact is not clear at the moment, although the Nepenthe webcam has shown only smoke today.