Visitors are now able to access Esalen as well as other businesses and trails in northern Big Sur via twice-daily convoys on Highway 1 operated by Caltrans.
Convoys run only at 7:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. each day. These are the only opportunities to travel into and out of Big Sur, so visitors must plan accordingly.
Thrity Umrigar is the bestselling author of a memoir, seven novels -- including The Space Between Us and Everybody's Son -- and a children's book, When I Carried You in My Belly. A recipient of the Nieman fellowship to Harvard, she is the Armington Professor of English at Case Western Reserve University.