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Big Sur's Timber Fire burns 1,700 acres
The Timber Fire has exploded in size since it was first reported Sunday morning. According to Cal Fire, it has scorched more than 1,700 acres in the Big Sur area and is only 5% contained as of Monday.
BIG SUR, Calif. - A wildfire burning in the rugged mountains above California’s iconic Big Sur coastline is bringing another disruption to a community that has endured years of fires, landslides and closures along Highway 1.
The Timber Fire began Sunday in Monterey County and grew rapidly Monday, prompting evacuation orders in parts of Big Sur and affecting some of the region’s best-known destinations.
Popular destinations
Timber Fire as of Aug. 11, 2026. Photo: Cal Fire
By Tuesday morning, the fire had burned roughly 2,500 acres and remains 5% contained, Cal Fire reported. Evacuation orders and warnings remain in effect in portions of the Big Sur area as firefighters work in steep and difficult terrain.
Popular destinations including Nepenthe, the Henry Miller Memorial Library and Alila Ventana Big Sur have been among the locations affected by evacuation orders. Visitors have also been urged to stay away from the area to leave Highway 1 available for residents and emergency crews.
Also, four state parks closed Monday, including Point Sur State Historic Park, Andrew Molera State Park, Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park and Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park.
Sarah and Ara Devine drove nearly three hours south from Oakland at the iconic Nepenthe restaurant, which is built into a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
"We didn't check any kind of news prior to coming down here," Ara Devine said on Monday. "We rove all the way there noticing the smoke, but we weren't sure what was going on. And then we got turned away at the door."
Another setback for Big Sur
Big Sur's Highway 1 to reopen
Highway 1 through Big Sur will fully reopen on Wednesday, after being closed for years.
The fire comes at an especially difficult time for businesses that depend heavily on visitors traveling one of California’s most famous highways.
It was only in January that Highway 1 fully reopened between Carmel and Cambria following a lengthy closure caused by Regent’s Slide.
The landslide closed the highway in February 2024, cutting off through-access along the Big Sur coast. After extensive work to stabilize the mountainside and rebuild the roadway, Caltrans reopened Highway 1 at Regent’s Slide on January 14, 2026, restoring the complete coastal route through Big Sur.
California officials described the reopening as an important restoration of access for residents, visitors and businesses along the coast.
Now, only about seven months later, another natural disaster is disrupting travel and tourism during the busy summer season.
Big Sur has a long history with fire and landslides
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Big Sur washout: 1,600 trapped after Highway 1 collapses
Emergency crews on Monday were allowing people stuck in Big Sur to leave even as part of Highway 1 washed out over the weekend.
The Timber Fire is the latest in a series of natural disasters to affect the isolated Big Sur coastline.
In January 2022, the Colorado Fire burned along the Big Sur coast near Palo Colorado Canyon, forcing evacuations and temporarily closing a portion of Highway 1.
The much larger Dolan Fire began south of Big Sur in August 2020 and eventually burned more than 124,000 acres in Los Padres National Forest. That fire also resulted in road, recreation-area and campground closures.
Big Sur has repeatedly been affected by landslides as well.
A particularly destructive series of storms in 2017 damaged the Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge and triggered massive slides along Highway 1, isolating communities and businesses for months.
More recently, repeated landslides along the southern Big Sur coast, culminating with Regent’s Slide in 2024 preventing motorists from traveling the entire Highway 1 route between Carmel and Cambria until this January.
For businesses dependent on tourism, losing access to Highway 1 can have an immediate economic impact. Hotels, restaurants, shops and other destinations throughout Big Sur rely heavily on visitors traveling the coastal highway.
Smoke reaches the Bay Area
The Timber Fire is also contributing to concerns about wildfire smoke as smoke from fires around the West moves across Northern California.
The Bay Area Air District has issued an Air Quality Advisory for Tuesday and Wednesday because of wildfire smoke.
The advisory is not a Spare the Air Alert, but residents may notice hazy skies and localized smoke impacts. Air quality can vary considerably depending on winds and whether smoke remains elevated or mixes down toward the surface.
Residents can monitor real-time smoke and air quality conditions using the EPA’s AirNow Fire and Smoke Map.
Meanwhile, a change in the weather could offer firefighters some assistance. Cooler temperatures and increasing marine influence are expected along the Central Coast compared with the hotter conditions experienced earlier in the fire.
The Source: Cal Fire, U.S. Forest Service / Los Padres National Forest, Caltrans, Bay Area Air District, AirNow, Monterey County Sheriff, KQED, Los Angeles Times, Oakland residents