Monterey Bay Events

The Timber and Plaskett fire banner is down. As of 3 October 2026, Caltrans lists no wildfire closure on Highway 1 through Big Sur, CAL FIRE records the Plaskett Fire as fully contained, and the Timber Fire at 88% contained. Live status from CAL FIRE ↗

August 7 – 16, 2026 · Plan your movement

Car Week traffic, closures & parking

Car Week puts hundreds of thousands of extra vehicles onto peninsula roads that were not built for them. This page collects what the cities, the county, Caltrans and the event operators have actually published — closures by day, how Highway 1 and Highway 68 behave, where you can park at each venue, which shuttles run, and when to arrive.

How to read this page. 37 of the facts below are the agency's or the operator's own words, and each links to the page they are on. 4 are marked Inferred from event times — we know when and where an event runs because its organizer published that, and the closure is our reading on top of it, not a notice anyone issued. 6 are marked Nobody publishes this, which is a finding rather than a gap: there is no Pacific Grove parking plan to look up, and Laguna Seca will tell you where General Parking is but not what it costs — see our Laguna Seca camping and access guide for that one in full, and the Laguna Seca map for where the lots, gates and campgrounds actually are.

Nothing here is flagged as unchecked. Where we could not stand a claim up, we did not make it — a price we cannot source is simply absent, with a link to whoever sets it, because a stale number read as current is worse than no number at all.

Widely-circulated Car Week closure tables are frequently prior-year data — the most-syndicated one dates from 2023. None of its dates are reproduced here.

Check these first

Live official sources

County closure map

The County of Monterey publishes daily closure and detour information for Highway One, Ocean Avenue, Pacific Grove and the routes into Pebble Beach.

Open county closure list

Caltrans live cameras

Caltrans operates live cameras and an incident feed along Highway 1 and Highway 68. This is the check to run immediately before leaving, not the night before.

Caltrans QuickMap

County permits

For county permit questions, call the County of Monterey Permit Center at 831-755-5025, or contact the city where the event takes place.

Call 831-755-5025

Where the roads shut

Closures by day

One confirmed multi-day closure dominates the week — 17-Mile Drive. The rest are street-level and event-driven, and the host cities publish event times far more reliably than they publish closure notices.

Highway 1 — Big Sur

mile marker 42.6 (south of Deetjen's Big Sur Inn) to mile marker 37 (Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park)

Big Sur · Closed August 11–22, and again from August 27 across a 40-mile span — open as of October 3, 2026

Closed for public and firefighter safety, first for the Timber Fire and then for the Timber and Plaskett fires together. The first closure ran 11–22 August and covered mile markers 37 to 42.6; Caltrans reopened it at 1pm on the 22nd and it held for five days. The Plaskett Fire started on 26 August and the road shut again on the 27th, this time from Gorda at mile marker 10.2 to Captain Cooper Elementary at mile marker 50.1 — roughly 40 miles, the whole coast rather than a segment. As of 3 October 2026 Caltrans lists no wildfire closure on Highway 1 through Big Sur.

County of Monterey — Timber Fire emergency info ↗

17-Mile Drive

Pebble Beach · Thursday, August 13 – Sunday, August 16

Closed to traffic not related to the Concours d'Elegance. Residents and club members holding standard passes keep access, and hotels, shops and restaurants inside the gates stay open to the public.

Pebble Beach Concours — Directions, Parking & Event Maps ↗

Stillwater Cove coastal access

Pebble Beach · Thursday, August 13 – Sunday, August 16

Public coastal access at Stillwater Cove is closed for the Concours, and equipment drop-off at the Beach Club parking lot is unavailable with it. The wider programme of changes runs August 10–17. If you were planning to reach the shore through Pebble Beach rather than to attend an event, this is the closure that affects you.

Pebble Beach Resorts — 17-Mile Drive ↗

Ocean Avenue

through the central business district Inferred from event times

Carmel-by-the-Sea · Tuesday, August 11 – Thursday, August 13

Closed to public parking during the scheduled street showcases. The city runs its free Larsen Field shuttle on exactly these three days, which is the clearest published signal of when downtown is hardest to drive.

What is actually sourced: The city's Car Week page publishes the shuttle dates and the parking guidance but does not publish a street-closure table. Segment limits and hours are not stated anywhere official.

City of Carmel-by-the-Sea — Car Week 2026 ↗

Lighthouse Avenue

downtown Pacific Grove Inferred from event times

Pacific Grove · Wednesday, August 12

The Little Car Show occupies downtown Lighthouse Avenue from noon. A rolling closure is the practical effect.

What is actually sourced: Derived from the Pacific Grove Chamber's published event time and location. Neither the city nor the chamber publishes closure blocks or hours for 2026.

Pacific Grove Chamber — Car Week Events 2026 ↗

Lighthouse Avenue

downtown Pacific Grove Inferred from event times

Pacific Grove · Friday, August 14

Pacific Grove Rotary Concours Auto Rally stages downtown, with registration from 10:00 a.m. and the rally rolling out at 2:00 p.m.

What is actually sourced: Times are the chamber's published event times, not a closure notice. No official closure segment or hours are published for 2026.

Pacific Grove Chamber — Car Week Events 2026 ↗

Valley Greens Drive

Inferred from event times

Carmel Valley · Friday, August 14

The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering runs at Quail Lodge and the approach road carries all of its traffic on a single day.

What is actually sourced: Derived from this site's event schedule. No official 2026 closure notice found for this road.

Closures move. Before you drive into any of these, check the county closure list and Caltrans QuickMap.

The two roads that matter

Highway 1 and Highway 68

Highway 1

The peninsula's spine — Monterey to Carmel, and the only direct approach to the Highway 68 junction.

Every Pebble Beach and Carmel event loads onto Highway 1. South of Carmel, Rocky Creek Bridge has one-way controlled traffic around the clock for construction through 30 November 2026. Caltrans QuickMap has live cameras and incidents for the corridor; check it before you leave rather than after you are already in it.

Caltrans QuickMap ↗

Highway 68

Monterey–Salinas Highway, the direct road to Laguna Seca.

Laguna Seca tells spectators to avoid its main Highway 68 entrance entirely and to enter through South Boundary Road or Watkins Gate instead. Treat Highway 68 as the road you cross, not the road you arrive on.

WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca — Event Map & Directions ↗

Highway 218 (Canyon Del Rey)

The connector from Highway 1 to the Laguna Seca back gates.

From Highway 1 in either direction, exit onto Highway 218 and travel east about two miles, turn left on General Jim Moore Boulevard, then right on South Boundary Road and follow the signs in.

WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca — Event Map & Directions ↗

Highway 101

The inland approach, via Salinas.

Take the Monterey-Peninsula / Sanborn Road exit, head west on Sanborn to South Main Street / Highway 68, turn left, take the Reservation Road exit, turn right, and follow race traffic signs to Watkins Gate. Watkins Gate is open on Saturday only.

WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca — Event Map & Directions ↗

Where to leave the car

Parking by venue

Pebble Beach

Pebble Beach

17-Mile Drive is closed to non-Concours traffic from Thursday through Sunday, so there is no drive-up-and-park option. Follow signage and traffic officials to the lot that matches your ticket.

  • General admission parking

    Assigned by ticket type. Trailing shuttles run from the lots to the Concours Village drop-off. The official page does not name the lots or publish their capacity.

  • ADA parking — Lot 9, off Portola Road

    Thursday, August 13 through Saturday, August 15, for vehicles with a state-issued placard. Complimentary shuttle to the show field.

  • ADA parking — 17-Mile Drive at Bird Rock

    Sunday, August 16 only, for vehicles with a state-issued placard. Complimentary shuttle to the show field.

  • 17-Mile Drive gate fee — August 7–12, before the closure $12.50 per vehicle

    Pebble Beach charges this to enter the Del Monte Forest gates on a normal day, and it applies to Car Week events held inside the gates before the Concours closure begins on the 13th. The fee is reimbursed if you spend $35 or more at a Pebble Beach Resorts restaurant — Pebble Beach Market excluded.

  • Concours ticket holders do not pay the gate fee

    A Concours ticket already covers it: “Tickets include entrance into Pebble Beach, parking, and shuttle services to the show field.” The show field opens to credentialed spectators at 5:30 a.m.

  • Casa Palmero garage & 17th Hedgerow — RESERVATION ONLY

    On August 10, 11 and 12, parking at the 17th Hedgerow and the Casa Palmero garage is by reservation only, on 831-625-8536. This is the garage beside where the Motoring Classic arrives on the 12th, so turning up to watch without a reservation means no parking there. On August 17 the 17th Hedgerow closes and Casa Palmero stays reservation-only.

  • Rideshare drop-off — Concours Village

    At Forest Lake Road and Stevenson Drive, across from the Pebble Beach Auctions. Rideshare is encouraged on Concours Sunday specifically to cut parking demand.

Shuttle. Shuttle passes are sold online in advance and in person at the Carmel Visitor Center inside Carmel Plaza, at Ocean Avenue and Mission Street. The pass price is not published on the official directions page.

Event details and map → Pebble Beach Concours — Directions, Parking & Event Maps ↗

WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca

Salinas

Do not use the main Highway 68 entrance. All vehicles enter through South Boundary Road or Watkins Gate, and Watkins Gate is open on Saturday only.

  • General Parking — Purple 10 area

    Reached via the South Boundary Road entrance. No overnight parking is permitted in the General or Preferred Parking areas.

  • What General Parking costs Nobody publishes this

    Why there is nothing to cite: The raceway publishes where General Parking is and how to reach it, but no price for it — while separately selling Preferred Parking and season parking passes, and stating that vehicle parking must be purchased online in advance for the 2026 season. Whether a General Parking vehicle pays, and how much, is not resolved on any of their pages. Budget for a charge rather than assuming free.

  • Preferred Parking — Green Lakebed area

    Sold as a pass, including as an add-on to a season pass. Prices are not published on the raceway's information pages.

  • Gate hours

    Thursday through Saturday 7:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.; Sunday 7:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Event details and map → WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca — Ticket Information ↗

Ocean Avenue

Carmel-by-the-Sea

The city asks visitors to enter and leave town on Carpenter Street and Rio Road rather than through the centre. Ocean Avenue itself closes to public parking during the street showcases.

  • Larsen Field, Rio Road — free Free

    Next to the Carmel Mission, and the park-and-ride the city actually wants you to use.

  • Carmel Plaza Parking Garage

    On Mission Street just north of 7th Avenue. Paid; the city does not publish the rate.

  • Vista Lobos lot — 3rd & Torres

    Public lot, limited capacity.

  • Junipero centre-median spaces

    Curb spaces in the median between 3rd and 5th Avenues.

  • Sunset Center North Lot

    On 8th between Mission and San Carlos. Restricted on some days of Car Week — the city does not publish which.

Shuttle. Free shuttle between Larsen Field and Carmel Plaza on Tuesday, August 11, Wednesday, August 12 and Thursday, August 13, from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., every 10 to 15 minutes. One shuttle in the rotation has a wheelchair lift.

Event details and map → City of Carmel-by-the-Sea — Car Week 2026 ↗

Lighthouse Avenue

Pacific Grove

Nobody publishes this Downtown Pacific Grove has the least parking of any Car Week host town, and neither the city nor the chamber publishes a Car Week parking plan or a shuttle.

  • Street parking, downtown Pacific Grove Nobody publishes this

    First-come. No official capacity, price or time-limit information is published for Car Week.

    Why there is nothing to cite: Absence of a published plan is itself the finding — the chamber's Car Week page lists events and their times but no parking or shuttle detail.

  • Pacific Grove Golf Links — Legends of the Autobahn $30 prepaid / $40 on the day

    Spectator entry to the show itself is free; this is the parking charge, on Thursday, August 13.

Event details and map → Pacific Grove Chamber — Car Week Events 2026 ↗

Asilomar

Pacific Grove

Nobody publishes this Asilomar sits at the end of Sunset Drive, past the downtown congestion rather than through it.

  • Asilomar Conference Grounds — on-site parking Free

    There is no park entrance fee and no day-use fee for beach access.

  • Sunset Drive street parking Free

    Fills early on weekends even outside Car Week.

  • During ticketed Car Week events on the grounds Nobody publishes this

    Whether normal free parking still applies when a private event has the meadow is not published.

    Why there is nothing to cite: State Parks publishes the standing fee position; neither it nor the event organisers publish an exception for Car Week event days.

Event details and map → Asilomar State Beach — California State Parks ↗

Leave it parked

Shuttles & transit

MST Trolley — free, downtown Monterey

Free to ride, serving downtown Monterey, Fisherman's Wharf, Cannery Row and the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It departs the downtown parking garages at Tyler Street and Del Monte Avenue every 10 to 15 minutes, and it runs daily through the summer season rather than as a Car Week special.

MST Trolley route & schedule ↗

MST Trolley — daily hours

Nobody publishes this

Published as 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. daily, running from late May through early September. Confirm the current day's hours before relying on the last run: mst.org blocked an automated read of the page, so these hours come from MST's own listing rather than a direct fetch of it.

Why there is nothing to cite: MST's site returned 403 to a direct read; hours are from MST's published route listing and were not re-confirmed on the page itself.

Carmel free shuttle — Larsen Field to Carmel Plaza

Tuesday, August 11 through Thursday, August 13, 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., every 10 to 15 minutes, with one wheelchair-lift-equipped shuttle in the rotation. Free parking at the Larsen Field end.

City of Carmel — Car Week 2026 ↗

Pebble Beach shuttles

Trailing shuttles run from the general-admission lots to the Concours Village drop-off, and complimentary shuttles serve the ADA lots. Passes are sold online or at the Carmel Visitor Center in Carmel Plaza.

Pebble Beach directions & parking ↗

When to go

Best arrival times

Each of these is anchored to a published gate or start time. Where the advice goes beyond what is published — how early the queue forms, how far the walk gets — the note says so, because nobody publishes that number.

  • Laguna Seca

    Gates open at 7:00 a.m. Thursday through Saturday and close at 5:00 p.m.; Sunday runs 7:00 a.m. to noon. Arriving in the first hour is the difference between the back gates flowing and the back gates queueing.

    Basis: Gate hours are published by the raceway. The queueing observation is judgement, not a published figure.

  • Carmel-by-the-Sea

    The city's own shuttle runs 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. on the three showcase days. Park at Larsen Field and ride in — the closer you try to park to Ocean Avenue on those days, the longer the walk usually ends up being.

    Basis: Shuttle hours are published by the city. The parking observation is judgement.

  • Pebble Beach on Concours Sunday

    17-Mile Drive is closed to unrelated traffic and rideshare is actively encouraged. If you are driving, your arrival window is set by your ticket's assigned lot, not by the show field's schedule.

    Basis: Closure and rideshare guidance are published by the Concours. No gate time is published on the directions page.

  • Pacific Grove

    The Little Car Show starts at noon on Wednesday and Legends of the Autobahn at 9:00 a.m. on Thursday. Downtown parking is the constraint, so arrive well before the published start rather than at it.

    Basis: Start times are published by the Pacific Grove Chamber. The parking constraint is judgement, and no official parking plan exists to check it against.

  • Highway 1, any day

    Check Caltrans QuickMap immediately before leaving. Conditions on the corridor change faster than any published schedule can describe.

    Basis: QuickMap is Caltrans' live camera and incident feed.

Deciding where to go once you have solved how to get there? The free Car Week events list is the cheapest way to see cars this week — most of it is street-side and needs no ticket, which also means no event parking to pay for. The full schedule has every event by day, and the Car Week overview explains how the week fits together; the venue map puts every event on one map. For the rest of the year, see all 2026 Central Coast events or the Monterey events calendar.