Hearst Castle and the Pacific Coastline

July 4,2015
What a beautiful day!!!  A bit more sea fog so we couldn't see the water as easily but inland the skies were a clear blue and breezes had us putting on a jacket and taking it off all day since the sun was warm enough if the wind wasn't blowing hard.

We spent the morning at Hearst Castle up on the top of a very high hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean and all the property that W R Hearst had amassed - 390 square miles of it.  It required a 15 minute bus ride on switchback roads to make it to the complex from the entrance off of Hwy 1.

This was a place where you could spend the whole day if you were so inclined and willing to spring for the cost of the 3 offered tours which still only give an overview of the place that has 115 rooms in the big house alone without counting the three "cottages" for guests.  The complex is Mediterranean style and features gardens, statuary, pools and terraces besides the buildings.

This is the entry door to the "big house."  It comes from a sixteenth century monastery.  It takes you into the "living room" or gathering room which is 25,000 square feet in size!!!!!!

This is the tile floor entry

The entry is flanked by two huge "niches"

The living or meeting room was so huge it simply couldn't be photographed in its entirety but this gives an idea of what it looked like (at least one end of it)

This is the doorway off of the entry into the living/meeting area

And in this picture you can see the fireplace opposite the door as well as the carved wood ceiling. Note the wood carving along the lower part of the walls,  These are choir loft chairs from a monastery in Spain.

Guests would all gather in this room around 8:00 p.m. for conversation.  Hearst would then come in and invite them to dinner in this dining room

After dinner people would gather in this room for more conversation, a card game, or other activity.

While some would gather in this room

Then at 10:00 p.m. everyone would gather in the theater to watch the latest movie or one that had not yet even been released.  Often some of the actors in the movie would be guests at that time

After we had toured these rooms, we were given the freedom to walk the grounds.  We found Frank and Bette doing the same thing after their tour of the kitchens and three "cottages."  They are on the left down on one of the terraces waving to me.

I say ONE of the terraces because there were many with some positively gorgeous views of the surrounding area

One of the first things we checked out was the outdoor pool.  It is being renovated so it did not have any water in it but it still was an amazing thing to see.

This is a shot from one of the terraces of Frank and Bette with one of the cottages that they toured in the background

Lest you think "well that isn't very big," this is a picture of the back - it is a bit larger :-)

This is the back of another one of the cottages with Ken in the foreground

There was a lot of statuary around the grounds as well as beautiful flower gardens

These tennis courts were over the top of the indoor swimming pool

The bus then took us back down the switchback road stopping to point out a couple of the cages animals were kept in while Hearst was living here.  He had over one hundred varieties of animals roaming the hills and in cages creating his own zoo including polar bears, lions, tigers, bears, camels, chimps, giraffes, and zebras.  Zebras are still on the land as a few escaped when the animals were being moved to zoos once the home was no longer being used.  Those zebras can still be seen sometimes intermingling with the cattle that still are kept on the ranch land.

We returned to the visitor center and spent some time checking out the gallery with displays telling more about the family, the architect responsible for building the complex, the acquiring of the items needed for the interior like ceilings, tile, tapestries, doors, etc.  So many art objects were purchased that it would take an individual buying one a day for their entire life to get somewhat close to the number.  Many of the items are hundreds of years old.

Hunger finally tugged us away.  But first we drove a couple of miles north to the elephant seal rookery.  The sea fog was lifting and we could finally see some of the shoreline. Those aren't rocks on the beach - just seals resting.

This big guy was moving further up away from the water

 I was able to capture an elephant seal playing in the water too.  Actually several were doing so but they were just far enough away that it was hard to photograph them but it was fun to watch.

We then drove south a few miles to a cafe where we enjoyed fish and chips. (well a couple of us did and the other two had a hamburger)

Then we continued down to Morro Beach for a peak at Morro Rock - an enormous rock at one end of a huge beach and dune area.

The tiny dots at the edge of the water are people which gives a bit more of a perspective on how huge this rock is

There was another interesting rock near by 

Because the sea fog was flowing in and out so much, we decided not to do any more sightseeing on Hwy 1 even though it is a very scenic drive.

Instead we returned to our campground and just relaxed for the remainder of the day.