LANDSLIDE BURIES STRETCH OF ICONIC CALIF. HIGHWAY

A massive landslide along an iconic coastal highway in California has buried the road under a 40-foot layer of rock and dirt, the latest hit after a winter of crippling slides and flooding.

A swath of the hillside gave way in an area called Mud Creek on Saturday night, changing the Big Sur coastline below to include what now looks like a rounded skirt hem, Susana Cruz, a spokeswoman with the California Department of Transportation, said Tuesday.

More than 1 million tons of rock and dirt tumbled down the slope, covering up about onequarter of a mile of Highway 1.

Narrow, windy Highway 1 through Big Sur is a major tourist draw, attracting visitors to serene groves of redwoods, beaches and the highway’s dramatic oceanside scenery between San Francisco and Los Angeles.