Day 35 – April 14 – Hearst Castle

We decided today was the day to visit the Hearst Castle in San Simeon.  We drove the 40 or so miles from the campground to just north of San Simeon and the castle – now part of the California State Park system.  On the way up we stopped at a vista to look at the ocean and by chance we saw more sea otters.

 

At the visitors center we purchased our tickets for the Grand Room tour.  You have to take a bus to the actual castle and we had time before our tour, so we watched the movie on the building of the castle.  The movie was interesting and tried to explain why Hearst decided to build a castle in California.  His father made his fortune in silver mining and other investments.  William Hearst traveled the world with his mother for a year and a half when he was 10 years old.  He was very impressed with the European castles.

The castle, or as he called it his “ranch at San Simeon”, was a project that lasted from 1919 to 1947.  He collected art works from all over the world and brought them to warehouses in New York, San Francisco, and San Simeon.  For example the statue over the main door, named the Madonna and Child – if I remember correctly, is from the 15^th century.  Similar art pieces are found throughout the building and grounds of this massive estate.

We saw four or five rooms including the dining room, game room, and the theater room.  The complete complex has over 160 rooms; the main structure (called Casa Grande) contains 115 rooms including 38 bedrooms and is about 68,500 square feet.

 

 

We walked the grounds after our tour and viewed the Neptune Pool – a 17^th century Italian statue of Neptune is incorporated into the focal point of the pool.  Other materials used in the pool structure include Roman columns from the 1^st – 4^th centuries.  This is one of three pools on the estate.

 

Indoor Roman Pool

After leaving the Hearst Castle we continued north on PCH to the viewing area for the elephant seals.  There were hundreds of the big seals lying on the sand.  Every once in a while you would see one of them flip sand up on their back, I guess to cool off.

 

There were a few active ones that were testing their fighting moves.

We continued up a mile or so past the seals to view the Piedras Blancas Lighthouse from a couple of areas on the PCH.

The lighthouse is closed to the public but tours are offered on selected days but we took our photos and returned home.