Highway 1 reopens near Big Sur as businesses hope for Labor Day boost after Timber Fire closures

MONTEREY COUNTY, California (KSBW) -- The northern closure of Highway 1 reopened this morning, giving Big Sur businesses a chance to welcome back customers after weeks of on-and-off closures due to the Timber Fire. The reopening comes just in time for the holiday weekend, and businesses in the area are hopeful that Labor Day crowds will help make up for lost revenue. "I would expect that we're probably looking at somewhere in the magnitude of, you know, a million and a half to $2 million of revenue," said Kirk Gafil, general manager of Nepenthe, estimating the losses since the Timber Fire began on August 8. "It'll be a few more days before we're able to get anywhere close to normal. Although when the highway reopens to the south, then the recovery should be pretty rapid," Gafil said. Nepenthe initially closed for ten days, reopened for a week, and then had to shut down again for an additional week due to back-burn operations. The Big Sur River Inn is also welcoming back customers after the strategic burn. Staff believe this may be the inn's first hard closure since the 2020 pandemic. "I had to think for a minute. Because we rarely close. We do everything we can to stay open," said Colin Twohig, the General Manager at the inn. The Big Sur River Inn also experienced a significant drop in revenue. "Hundreds of thousands of dollars in, if not more. Haven't crunched the numbers yet, and, you know, lost revenue that we were expecting, but we're, we're hanging in there," Twohig said. The partial reopening of Highway 1 comes at a critical time for Big Sur businesses. "Labor Day weekend marks, like the last big bang of summer business for us, and for most of our neighbors," Twohig said. "When we get word the highway is going to reopen, we are very excited and grateful and do all we can to prepare for that," Kirk G. said. At the Big Sur River Inn, staff are actively reaching out to customers who had to cancel their stays due to the fires, offering rooms at discounted prices. Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.