California Coast 2015 - Cambria and San Simeon, Hearst Castle, May 8th & 9th.

On our way to San Simeon we take a detour to Solvang, know as "Little Denmark", north of Santa Barbara in the Santa Ynez Valley. Founded in 1911, it preserves the culture, traditions and architecture of the Danish people who settled here.

Solvang, CA

Solvang, CA

We continue following Highway 1 up the rugged California coast heading for Cambria.

The rugged coast along Highway 1.

Near San Simeon we stop to see an Elephant Seal rookery. To conserve energy in the cold ocean they limit their blood flow in their outside blubber layer. This prevents them from shedding skin and hair as other animals do. In April and May the seals molt in about a month and shed their skin and hair on the beach. They fast during this time and conserve energy laying on the beach for the duration.

Elephant Seals. "It's so sweet being with my gang."

Elephant Seals spend much of their time in the ocean and can dive between 1,000 and 3,000 feet in search of food, spending only 2 or 3 minutes at the surface between dives. The record dive is about 5770 ft. and the longest duration is about 2 hours. Their eyes have special adaptions and are 10 times more sensitive than ours in order to see prey in the water and can adapt to light and dark very quickly. Amazing creatures.

Elephant Seals carry on occasional conversations but it doesn't seem to bother the neighbors. 

Elephant Seals molting and snoozing but this little guy wants to play.

In Cambria we found that the Hearst San Simeon State Park was filled so we got an invitation to boon dock in a meadow where we spent 2 night so we could visit the Hearst Castle.

Boondock.

What can I say about the Hearst Castle. It's fabulous. The visitors center offers several tours a day of different sections of the castle. Shuttles take visitors up the hill to the castle. The tours last 45 minutes but you can wander the grounds and gardens as long as you like and catch any shuttle back to the visitors center. There's a theater at the center where the film "Building the Dream" should be seen before you take a tour. It's very well produced and give you a great appreciation of the planning and building of the castle. Hearst called it the Enchanted Hill and indeed it is. Here are some of my photos.

Hearst Castle's grand entry to Casa Grande.

The towers are eloquent Moorish architecture.

Walking the grounds.

The castle has 3 cottages.

Casa del Mar, the House of the Sea, with a stunning view of the sea.

Casa del Sol, the House of the Sun.

Casa del Monte, House of the Mountains.

The dining room where all Mr. Hearst famous guests assembled.

The library.

One of the 38 bedrooms in Casa Grande.

Some of the columns in Casa Grande. 

The study.

Every ceiling in every room is unique.

Some ceiling have murals.

The indoor pool. The balcony is a diving platform.

The indoor pool.

Fushia in bloom in the garden.

The 3 inch fushia flowers are the largest I've ever seen.

The western face of Casa del Sol with a statue of Apollo.W

We'll be heading north on Highway 1. Our next destination is Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park and the Redwoods. See you down the road.

Jackie

California Coast 2015 - San Diego to Cambria, May 3rd to 7th.

We head up the coast from San Diego. Our next stop is San Mateo Campground at San Onofre State Beach. The campground is paved with lush trees screening the sites. There are token operated showers, flush toilets, a dump station and water. The cost is $35 a night. It's a quiet setting away form the highway. 

Camp site at San Mateo State Park.

A one-mile nature trial leads from the campground to Surf Beach State Park and we walked down to bird and watch the surfers.

As we sit on the beach a flock of Sanderlings came scurrying by forging along the surf. Aren't they cute? They soon disappeared into little dots as they hurried on along the beach. When they run their little legs are a blur while their bodies remain perfectly level. They're fun to watch as they follow the receding water when they forage and then race back up the beach ahead of the next wave.

The surf is high and we enjoy watching some great surfing.

The pier at Oceanside.

We take a 47 mile round-trip bike ride from the campground to Oceanside. The route is mostly bike path with some sections of bike lane along busy roads.

Jackie on the pier.

Back at the campground that afternoon we're treated to maneuvers performed by three V22 Osprey that do several take-offs and landings. The campground is on the north boundary of Camp Pendleton so these things must happen once in a while. From the campground all we can see of the Camp are a valley and rolling hills. The Osprey flew in and landed in an open space in the valley.



V22 Osprey



V22 Osprey

We travel on north and stop at Venice Beach. The architecture is the most interesting thing about the area. Each home on the beach front is unique. Due to the cool weather, the "freak show" was absent from the beach.

Venice Beach

There are also lovely and unique homes long the canals behind the beachfront properties.

The Canals of Venice Beach

Our next camp is at Malibu Creek State Park where we spend one night. The sites are short so there aren't any large rigs. They have token operated showers, flush toilets, dump station and water for $45. The campground is about 8 miles up Malibu Canyon from Hwy 1.

Our camp site at Malibu Creek State Park.

The opening scene from M*A*S*H and scenes from the first Planet of the Apes and Logan's Run were filmed here.

Malibu Creek Canyon in the Santa Monica Mountains.

A lone Valley Oak spreads its limbs over a meadow in the canyon.

Our next camp is at Gaviota State Beach. Sites are small side-by-side parking spaces, There are restrooms but most of the doors were locked. There wasn't a dump station and the host said we had to go to a private campground and pay to dump and by the way, don't use too much water. There's a railroad trestle next to the campground but fortunately only one train went by. The campground wasn't well cared for and the beach was a bit trashy. All this for $45 a night.

Our camp site at Gaviota State Beach campground.

A rail road trestle is the backdrop to our camp site. 

The best thing about Gaviota were the birds. There is a small estuary and we saw a Bonaparte's Gull, Great Egret and Snowy Egret. Jim used his new spotting scope / camera to take these photos.

Bonaparte's Gull

Great Egret.

Snowy Egret.

A Snowy Egret forges along the in the surf.

Snowy Egret. 

Our next destination is San Simone and the Hearst Castle.

Join us again.

Jackie

California Coast 2015 - Home to San Diego

Our Travels of the Mercury takes us on a two-month trip up the coast of California. We'll be spending May and June on the road.

We leave home on April 28th and camp the first night at Gilbert Ray Campground in the Tucson Mountains State Park west of Tucson, AZ. The campground has large nicely spaced sites interspersed with native Sonoran desert. The sites are gravel but all the loop roads are paved. Restrooms are old but maintained. There are sites with electric and water taps in several location around the campground. The cost was $20/night.

The Palo Verdes yellow blossoms glow in the morning sun in the foothills of the Tucson Mountains State Park as we head down the road for California.

We make it all the way to California's Cleveland National Forest and camp at Cibbets Flat Forest Service Campground. A nice primitive campground with big shady oaks and a boisterous flock of Acorn Woodpeckers. No hook-ups but water at the sites and pit toilets. A real value at $14/night, $7 with senior discount.

The campground is a mile from the Pacific Crest Trail and hikers come here to camp. We talked with several of them about their hikes.   They were about 30 miles into their 2300 mile trek.

Our Lords Candle Yucca were blooming in the hills surrounding the campground. We walked a primitive road that intersected the Pacific Crest Trail.  Now we can say that we have "put our feet" to the trail.

We arrive in San Diego and dip our feet into the Pacific Ocean for the first time.

We stay 3 nights at the Silver Strand State Park on the beach. All the sites have water and 50 amp service for $50 a night. There are restrooms. The best thing about the campground is that it's right on the beach and directly connected to the Bay Shore Bikeway. The downside of the campground is that it's a parking lot and right next to busy highway 75 with vehicles speeding by. The campground is totally filled on the weekends. It's a noisy place but quiets down at 10 pm.

We enjoyed setting on the beach watching lines of pelicans soar the wave crests and the cute little Sanderlings forge along the water line and race the surf.

A Sanderling beach combing.

On our first day we took a 40 mile bike ride on the Bay Shore Bikeway, through down town San Diego and along the water front where the Marine Museum is located.

The Midway Aircraft Carrier

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Along the Bay Shore Bikeway is this colorful metal bike sculpture. If you follow the Tour de France you'll recognize the colors of the first 3 large bikes.

Sunset on the beach and we sit and enjoy the sound of the sea. This was our first time camping on the ocean. We've fallen in love with the sea.

Tomorrow we begin our California adventure and head north up the coast.

Happy travels.
Jackie