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BIG SUR, Calif. (RNS) — When a landslide closed a section of Big Sur’s Pacific Coast Highway in early 2023, Peggy Horan’s commute to work jumped from 40 minutes to about 4.5 hours.

Since 1969, Horan has lived in Big Sur, working as a massage therapist and midwife at the Esalen Institute, a retreat center that helped popularize Eastern spirituality, humanistic psychology and holistic wellness in the United States. Living on Big Sur’s picturesque, primordial coastline has meant adapting to elemental realities — wildfires and windstorms, downpours and droughts.

“We walked our kids through (land)slides to get to school,” Horan said in an interview.

Still, at 85, she can’t recall many events as significant as Paul’s Slide in January 2023 and Regent’s Slide in 2024. “This closure was three years,” Horan said.…