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Dear All
Oh my goodness, what an absolutely incredible couple of days I've just had on this amazing California Road Trip. It's been filled with stunning scenery and captivating wildlife. Just when I thought this trip couldn't get any better, it pulled out another stunner on me! Last I wrote, I was just about to leave lovely Santa Barbara. I had another exciting day of driving ahead of me, with a couple of stops scheduled on my way to my next destination, Monterey.
First up, and not far from Santa Barbara, I drove past the Vandenberg Space Force Base. This was for my brother (Hi Patrick if you're reading this!), who's a big fan of SpaceX and Elon Musk. Apparently, on that very evening, they were sending another rocket up into space, from this very space base. I hadn't realised they had one here in California, following my visit to Kennedy Space Centre in Florida last year. After a bit of research, I found that the Vandenberg "Visitors' Centre" isn't intended for tourists, but rather for special invitees who can apply in advance online citing a sponsor to vouch for them. I wouldn't have been able to do any
Elephant Seal
Big Sur Coastof this, so opted for a sneaky shot or two as I drove by. Fortunately the traffic lights right outside the Visitors' Centre turned red just as I got there, so I had plenty of time for some surreptitious camera work, not knowing whether photography was allowed or not, considering the place's sensitive nature, and how edgy some US officials become when people start taking photos at government spots. I took some good photos, and nobody chased me, which is always good!
From there, I drove up California's famous Coastal Highway, named in this place from the city of San Luis Obispo up to Monterey as "The Big Sur", after what the Spanish who had arrived in Monterey called the coastline to the south (or "sur") of Monterey. I was heading to the fantastical Hearst Castle, about an hour's drive north of San Luis Obispo. Unfortunately, the road after this place has been impassable since 2017 when a major landslide near Mill Creek destroyed large parts of this epic road along California's most stunning coastal scenery. There have also been several landslides since, including one on the very day before I was driving along it on this day -
Harbour Seal Mum and Pup, Nursing
Point Lobos State Natural Reserve more on that below. They have been rebuilding it for the last seven years, and it was actually due to open in late spring of this year, shortly after my visit. Though this most recent landslide of 31st March 2024 may delay that opening even further. I must admit I was a little disappointed not to be able to drive along the whole Big Sur, but what I did was brilliant anyway. This alternative plan was to do this southern part of the Big Sur up to Hearst Castle, just inland from the coastal town of San Simeon, and then do the northern part and back again later from my base in Monterey, though again, more on that below.
Hearst Castle was just amazing, a whimsical fairy-tale palace incongruously set in the dry scrubs of the Californian coast. It was the architectural dream come reality of media mogul W.R. Hearst, and his architectural associate Julia Morgan. Built in 1919, the Castle realised all of the tycoon's housing dreams since a childhood visit to Europe with his Mum. It subsequently became a socialite hotspot for the rich and famous during the 1920s. A visit is by guided tour only, which
Hearst Castle
Big Sur Coast I enjoyed very much. The guide was a serious barrel of energy, perhaps a Viking in a previous life. It starts with a bus ride up the hill just outside the small coastal town of San Simeon, to the hilltop upon which the Castle is perched. There are commanding views up there over Hearst's surrounding 82,000 acre ranch estate of rolling green grass hills, with the gorgeous Pacific Ocean shimmering in the distance below. There are several tours you can take, including visiting the upstairs suites, but it is recommended for the first-time visitor like myself to do the Grand Rooms Tour, which takes in parts of the 127 acres of lush gardens and outdoor areas surrounding the Castle, as well as the seriously grand and opulent reception rooms downstairs in the building. My tour took in the best parts I thought, including the gorgeous outdoor pool, the even more gorgeous indoor pool, the lounge, dining room, billiard room, and extensive gardens filled with flowers, plants, columns and Greek-influenced statues. Sheer opulence falls short in describing the place, and exploring it was an absolute delight. I can't imagine what a weekend at the Hearst Castle would have been like back
in the day, swimming in the pools, taking in a game of tennis, and meeting the man himself, surrounded by famous regular visitors including Charlie Chaplin, Cary Grant, Jean Harlow, and even Winston Churchill. They say the Orson Welles film Citizen Kane could be based on Hearst, but I doubt it myself due to the sociable and exuberant nature of the latter. I was glad to have visited.
Afterwards, a short drive further up the coast from San Simeon took me to an Elephant Seal Observation Point. The colony remains there year round, but this was the time of year when most of the gigantic adults are out at sea, leaving their offspring back on the beach to fend for themselves. As well as seeing numerous of these lazy teenagers lining the sand, there still remained one rather aggressive adult male, with its large and remarkably bulbous nose very visible. I was glad he was there, as without the males, elephant seals just look like ordinary seals to me. Unfortunately there were no other males for him to have one of his awesome, famed duels with, but he did do his fair bit of picking on the younger ones,
including climbing on top of one and biting it - poor thing...
Nearby, I drove past a group of cars with people having gotten out to look at something, so I followed suit. Sure enough, in the far distance were a group of zebras! What?! Well, this was still a part of Hearst's vast estate, and back in his day, he had built up quite the menagerie of exotic animals, including lions, leopards and even polar bears in enclosures, while animals such as giraffes, kangaroos and zebras were left free to wander the grounds. These were the remnants of those wandering zebras, now living a wild life in this far-flung outpost of California! I noted that it was difficult to take a good photo of them, with their heads up rather than bent over eating grass, and realised that that would be because the ones here are not constantly on the look out for predators, as with their distant cousins back on their African continent homeland.
Rather than continuing up the coast from the Hearst Castle area, as 24 miles further north would have brought me to the road closure due to the 2017 landslide repairs, I headed
back inland again and up the quite similarly famous Highway 101 this time, also known as El Camino Real, and also known as The King's Highway. I was heading for my final stop of the day, the Point Lobos State Natural Reserve, recommended by one of the lovely Americans I met in Lesotho last summer who I'm now connected with on Facebook (thanks Heather!). I had two hours left of opening time to explore this small but exquisitely formed coastal beauty spot, a rocky peninsula jutting out into the sea just south of the ultra posh suburb of Monterey, Carmel-by-the-Sea. I did three short walks in total, parking my car in various places around the Point, along the numerous coastal and inland forest trails, with awesome vistas along the rocky bays, inlets and islands at every turn, surrounded by the sound of breaking waves all around. It was beautiful! I spotted a number of sea otters which I was really pleased with, although they were a little too far away to be able to have any really clear photos, even with my relatively powerful zoom lensed compact camera. There was also a beach where two harbour seal Mums had just
Hearst Castle
Big Sur Coast given birth that very morning to their pups, one of which I took a good photo of nursing her newborn baby - beautiful!
After this, it was a surprisingly short five-mile drive away to my accommodation for the next two nights in Monterey, another fantastic and seriously classic US-style motel again. This one was a bargain price at this time of year, with prices more than quadrupling over the summer period - crazy! It had clearly very considerate and attentive owners, and I had a really nice out-of-the-way room which I always like. It was actually right by the road nearby, but that doesn't bother me when I can put on a fan, heater or air-conditioner as white noise in the background. It had been a busy day, and I was glad to have a comfortable and cosy place to chill and contemplate my day at the end of it.
The next day, if this could at all be possible, was even more amazing than the day before. The highlight really had to be the whale watching tour I did in the morning, from the Old Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey. I still can't believe what we got to
Hearst Castle
Big Sur Coast see, for pretty much the full duration of the five-hour tour (it was meant to be four hours, but got extended due to the circumstances).
We initially spotted a pod of killer whales! This was awesome in itself, and just this brief sighting would have been enough for me. This pod then joined another, who were then joined by another, until we were with around 30 of these stunning creatures. The alpha female, with her baby in tow, suddenly led a 40-minute hunt chasing after a minke whale! The boat I was on followed this chase all the way, as the lead female bit the minke's fin and dragged it around a bit. All of the whales then continued to chase it, to tire it out. Eventually they all took turns jumping on top of it, turning it upside down, and then finally drowning the poor thing. As they were taking the body off somewhere else, the whole 30-strong group started putting on a kind of celebratory show for us, which was amazing! They began swimming in formation, diving under the surrounding boats, tail-slapping, and eventually breaching numerous times! We spent around three hours observing all of this action,
Hearst Castle
Big Sur Coast and it was seriously like being in my very own personal "Planet Earth" episode! What we had witnessed was very rare and special indeed, dubbed by the local "Sacramento Bee" news site as a "once-in-a-lifetime" experience, and I still can't quite believe it all happened!
On our way back to Monterey, we then spotted a mother grey whale and her newborn calf as they were making their way up from their birthing site near Mexico up to Alaska, and apparently hugging the Monterey Bay coast so that the sound of the crashing waves would disguise their breathing while the killer whales were not far off. Hopefully they were left alone as the group we saw already had plenty to eat for the next few days. I would seriously have been happy on this whale watching trip if we had just seen these mother and baby grey whales, but we got to see a whole spectacle in action - amazing!
Now, my original plan when back on shore was to drive down the northern section of the Big Sur Coast, up to where it was blocked off and back again, to take in the famous McWay Falls as they
Hearst Castle
Big Sur Coast fall directly into the Pacific Ocean, and as featured on the front cover of my California Lonely Planet, as well as a few famous bridges and more awesome Californian coastal views. But it turned out that the torrential rain and thunderstorm that I'd experienced arriving in Santa Barbara on the Saturday evening had hit even harder up here, causing a great chunk of the highway to collapse into the Ocean! This had stranded 1600 cars there, in between the original collapsed highway near Mill Creek and this latest one! Fortunately they were all evacuated in convoy the next day, but I really couldn't help thinking that I could easily have been one of them, and I thanked the Good Lord for keeping me safe there. The road collapse thus cut off a number of the places I was planning to see that afternoon, and the places before the collapse had also been closed to visitors to minimise traffic in the area. Thus, I re-planned, and visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium that afternoon instead of the next day, and planned for a couple of additional stops on my way to San Francisco the next day instead.
So my final place
Hearst Castle
Big Sur Coast of interest to visit on this Monterey section of my Road Trip was thus the brilliant Monterey Bay Aquarium, as recommended by my fellow Travel Bloggers Merry Jo, Dave and Brendan (thank you guys!), and definitely the best aquarium I have ever visited. As always with museums, national parks and tourist attractions in the USA, the place is exceptionally well-managed, friendly, and really quite unique. Highlights included its very famous Kelp Forest tank, which display these huge 10m high giant kelp seaweed so that the visitor can truly appreciate their awesomeness and size. Apparently they can grow up to 30m high in the Ocean, and are certainly nicknamed the "sequoias of the sea" for a reason - California definitely likes to do things large! I also loved seeing the sea otters and penguins, along with a new exhibition called "Into the Deep". I may be wrong, but I think this is the only place in the world where you can see some of the highly unusual creatures that dwell in the deeper, darker depths of the oceans. There must be some special, highly-pressurised tanks to keep them in. Also I think quite unique to this Aquarium is the ability to
Hearst Castle
Big Sur Coast actually touch some of the sea creatures, including rays, sea urchins, and amazingly one of the deep sea creatures, a giant isopod. I actually felt quite emotional touching this last one, understanding how far away its natural habitat is from my own, and how rare thus our encounter was. I was also particularly mesmerised by a large enclosure which houses various wading birds, in a beach-like environment, which the visitor can view with no cage, glass or barrier between whatsoever. They were literally inches away from where you stood, oblivious to the visitors admiring them. You could quite simply reach out and touch them if you wished, though of course this wasn't allowed - I don't think I've ever been so close to birds before!
After the Aquarium, I enjoyed one final walk along Cannery Row, the old fishing and industrial heart of the city from the mid-20th century time when it was bustling with its fishing and canning industries, and then the Old Monterey area, home to a number of gracious, 18th century Spanish-style buildings dating back to the city's founding in 1770.
Heading back to my cosy motel again, I was looking forward to some good
Hearst Castle
Big Sur Coast downtime and serious contemplation of what an amazing two days I had just had! From captivating scenery to breathtaking wildlife, interspersed as ever with such friendly Californian people - what a lovely part of the world!
The next day I was driving to San Francisco to drop off my car, and to explore this legendary city on this final leg of my Californian Adventure 2024!
But of course, more on this in my next one. Until then, thanks for reading, and all the very best for now!
Alex
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Home and Away
Bob Carlsen
I'm so pleased that you were able to see the glories of California on this trip...
especially the whales!