Northern Big Sur businesses seeing uptick despite Mud Creek slide

Aerial video of the massive Mud Creek landslide at the southern tip of Monterey County is the latest act of nature stressing out tourists.

Jeff Proctor planned his trip to the area months ago.

“With the mudslide a couple of weeks ago, I did get worried,” Proctor said.

Before coming, he made numerous calls to the campground to make sure it wasn’t affected and the Big Sur Lodge got similar phone calls.

“We had people call from Monterey, ‘can i get to you? How is it going to be?’ And there is the fear, is the land going to fall on me?,” said Dana Carnazzo, with Big Sur Lodge.

Even though the slide is 40 miles south on a stretch of Highway 1 that was already closed, the perception is what’s impacting businesses.

“The latest slide has just added another layer to the economic disaster because when people see that picture, they don’t really understand where it is,” Carnazzo said.

Despite the confusion, and with the Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park partially open, Carnazzo said things are looking better.

“It has been the beginning of things picking up, but it sort of like the beginning that we would normally have at the first of April,” Carnazzo said.

But businesses locked in between the Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge and the slides are still struggling.

Nepenthe serves 30 customers a day instead of a thousand and they have to wait a few more months before the cash starts flowing in.

“When Paul’s slide reopens, and we have access to the south through Nacimiento Fergusson Road, that combined with Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge being reopen, we should be able to be up around 85 percent.” said Kirk Gafill, general manager at Nepenthe.