Travels of The Mercury: 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

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.