July 30th 2024 | BIG SUR, MOSS LANDING and SAN SIMEON Bob Van Wagenen is cruising 2,000 feet above the rocky shoreline of California’s central coast at 180mph. The midday sun forces the fog to retreat westward from the cliffs and settle over the Pacific, allowing his four-seat Cessna Skylane a clear view of the bluffs below. He trades his aviator shades for spectacles to better read his instruments, and to look for blue whales in the azure waters. Two things stand out: the drama of the mountains meeting the sea, and the two-lane highway between them. “It’s terribly remote down here,” he says into his headset, the plane whirring in the background. “This is Highway 1 in all its glory.” Highway 1 has many names. Roosevelt Highway. Pacific Coast Highway. Cabrillo Highway. It is the westernmost road in California, and it feels like it. Only a guardrail and a steady hand prevent drivers from careening into the ocean. It was proposed at the end of the 19th century, and construction began in 1...
