Highway One through Big Sur was completed in 1937 after roughly eighteen years of construction through extremely difficult terrain. It runs approximately ninety miles along the central California coast between San Luis Obispo County and Monterey County and is designated an All-American Road, a distinction awarded to routes considered destinations in their own right. The corridor it passes through is protected across a patchwork of state parks and federal lands, keeping the landscape largely undeveloped and the views along this watercolor-style canvas recognizable to anyone who has driven it.

Late winter through spring brings the hillsides to their deepest green, making the contrast between the grassy slopes and the deep Pacific especially vivid on clear mornings like the one captured here.