by Alex Gugel , all rights reserved
![]() | Hearst San SimeonPark Brochure |
featured in
![]() | California Pocket Maps | ![]() |
covered parks
Hearst
San Simeon
State Park
and Historical Monument
Our Mission
The mission of California State Parks is
to provide for the health, inspiration and
education of the people of California by helping
to preserve the state’s extraordinary biological
diversity, protecting its most valued natural and
cultural resources, and creating opportunities
for high-quality outdoor recreation.
I
“ love this ranch. It is
wonderful. I love the sea
and I love the mountains
and the hollows in the hills
and the shady places in the
creeks and the fine old oaks
and even the hot brushy
California State Parks supports equal access.
Prior to arrival, visitors with disabilities who
need assistance should contact the park at
(805) 927-2035. If you need this publication in an
alternate format, contact interp@parks.ca.gov.
CALIFORNIA STATE PARKS
P.O. Box 942896
Sacramento, CA 94296-0001
For information call: (800) 777-0369
(916) 653-6995, outside the U.S.
711, TTY relay service
www.parks.ca.gov
Discover the many states of California.™
Hearst San Simeon State Park and
State Historical Monument
750 Hearst Castle Road
San Simeon, CA 93452 (805) 927-2010
© 2009 California State Parks (Rev. 2015)
Printed on Recycled Paper
hillsides . . . I would rather
spend a month here than
any place in the world.”
- William Randolph Hearst,
in a letter to his mother,
Phoebe Apperson Hearst
H
earst San Simeon State Park and
Hearst San Simeon State Historical
Monument® preserve more than 20 miles
of dramatic central California coastline.
Located 35 miles north of San Luis
Obispo along scenic Highway 1, the parks
frame shoreline vistas of beaches, rocky
promontories, and magnificent views of the
Santa Lucia Mountains and Hearst Castle®.
The Mediterranean climate is typically
mild, with average daytime highs of 69
degrees and evening lows of 42 degrees.
Rain is most likely from January through
March. Spring and summer are pleasant
during the day, cooling in the evening as
wind moves fog in from the ocean.
natural history
The diverse habitats of these two parks
include wetlands, seashore, grassland,
coastal scrub, and riparian areas. Offshore,
four state marine protected areas conserve
underwater resources. Cambria State
Marine Park became California State Parks’
first classified state marine park in 2010.
Geology
This part of the coastline consists mostly of
geologically young alluvial sediment and
older marine terrace deposits. In
the park, Cambria slab sandstone
— visible at Leffingwell
Landing— becomes Franciscan
mélange toward the north. The
mélange material is a mixture
of sandstone, chert, basalt,
greenstone, serpentine, shale,
eclogite, and blueschist. This
assemblage contains all three rock
types — igneous, sedimentary,
and metamorphic — and has a very
jumbled appearance.
Low, rolling mima mounds, a unique
geological feature in some of the park’s
grasslands, are found near vernal pools —
seasonal pools with abundant plant and
animal life.
Wildlife
Bobcats and coyotes hunt for brush
rabbits, gray tree squirrels, and California
ground squirrels; black-tail deer graze
on hillsides. Sensitive species include
California red-legged frogs, tidewater
gobies, steelhead trout, Western
snowy plovers, golden eagles,
and longbilled curlews. From
November to February,
monarch butterflies roost in
the Monterey pines.
Bird watchers will be amazed
by the diverse number of
birds to see at the beach, in the
wetlands, and along the trails.
Look for black phoebes, white-tailed
kites, mergansers, egrets, and black
oystercatchers.
Low tides reveal tide pools with
seastars, chitons, limpets, turban snails,
barnacles, and fish. Please leave the
plants and animals of the tide pools
undisturbed; they are vulnerable to
human impact and are protected by law.
From December to April, gray whales
migrate past this stretch of coastline on
their way to and from feeding grounds in
Alaska to birthing waters in Mexico.
Arroyo de la Cruz manzanita, adobe sanicle,
Hickman’s onion, Blochman’s dudleya,
and Arroyo de la Cruz mariposa lily. Prairie
grasslands are among the area’s native
plant communities.
area history
Young elephant seal napping
Don’t miss the fascinating northern
elephant seals. From December to March,
they can easily be seen resting, having
pups, battling, and mating on the beach
up the road from San Simeon Bay at
scenic vista points on the coast side
of Highway 1.
Native People
Archaeological evidence suggests that
ancestors of today’s Chumash and Salinan
people inhabited this part of the coast for
thousands of years, adapting to climatic
and environmental changes. They traveled
from the coast to the interior valleys,
following the abundant marine and
terrestrial resources. Their diet included
fish, shellfish, wild game, waterfowl, and the
grasses and seeds found inland.
Clothing, shelter, and tools were made
from resources available in the immediate
area; the natives traded other groups for
those goods that could not be procured or
produced locally.
Plants
Native plant communities include
riparian, wetland, Monterey pine
forest, oak woodland, coastal sage
scrub, chaparral, coastal strand, and
grassland. Look for willow, coast live
Settlement and Enterprise
oak, cottonwood, wax myrtle, blackberry
In 1769 the first European overland
bushes, and a great display of seasonal
expedition, led by Gaspar de Portolá, made
wildflowers. Take a hike through the
its way up the coast of California, clearing
Monterey pine forest — one of only five
the way for Spanish missionaries. The
native groups left in the world — on the
mission system brought drastic, permanent
Hearst San Simeon State Park Nature
change in the lifeways of the indigenous
Trail, reachable from the campground and
people, who now had to adopt new means
the Washburn day-use area.
of subsistence.
The park is
Local missions included Mission
home to rare
San
Antonio de Padua (1771), with
and endangered
an outpost at San Carpoforo Creek;
plants, including
Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa
maritime ceanothus,
dwarf goldenstars,
Arroyo de la Cruz manzanita
(1772), within 50 miles; and Mission San
Miguel Arcángel (1779), with an outpost at
San Simeon.
The typical mission landscape included
ranch stations, aqueducts, quarries, kilns,
crop lands, and grazing. In some areas,
entire native plant communities were
destroyed by the heavy grazing of
mission livestock.
In 1833 Mexican government officials
began to give out the newly secularized
mission holdings as land grants. They
divided the former mission properties into
three ranchos: Piedra Blanca, Santa Rosa,
and San Simeon. Cattle ranching was still
the major enterprise, as it had been during
the mission period.
Taking advantage of gray whales’ annual
migration between Baja California and
Alaska, Portuguese whaler Joseph Clark set
up a whaling station at San Simeon Bay
in 1852. From December to April, whale
spotters on the bluffs watched for the
white plumes of spray as a whale surfaced.
Small boats were then launched to capture
the whale and haul it into the station for
processing. At the peak of the whaling
period, 45 buildings — including a general
store, a blacksmith shop, a barbershop,
and a saloon — stood at San Simeon, and
22 families lived on the point. The whaling
station’s general store is the only building
dating back to San Simeon’s whaling days.
San Simeon
Roads into this remote section of the coast
were almost nonexistent until about 1850.
Sailing vessels and steamships stopped
at San Simeon to deliver freight and
load cargoes of mining and agricultural
equipment for delivery to San Francisco
and Los Angeles. Around 1850, the horse
trail between San Simeon and San Luis
Obispo was expanded, allowing
small carts to take agricultural
products to San Simeon for
shipment. However, the trail was
passable only in dry weather, and
shipping by steamer continued for
another 20 years.
Later, gasoline-powered trucks and
railroad service to San Luis Obispo brought
about changes in shipping patterns. By
1915 the practice of shipping by steamer
had ended. In 1937 the highway now
known as California State Route One
was completed.
The Hearst Family
In 1850 Missourian George Hearst, drawn
by the gold rush, arrived in California with
mining experience. He staked several
claims throughout the West.
Although Hearst managed
several other types of
businesses around
the state, he made
his fortune from the
Comstock, Homestake,
Ontario, and Anaconda
mines. In 1865 Hearst
began acquiring the
land that would become
the Hearst Ranch, where
George Hearst
Roman Pool at Hearst Castle
he raised cattle and race
horses. That year Mr. Hearst
became a member of the
Greek hydria,
California State Assembly,
5th century B.C.
and was elected to the U.S.
Senate in 1886. When he died in 1891, his
wife Phoebe Apperson Hearst inherited
Rancho Piedra Blanca, later adding more
property that had once been the whaling
station. The Hearsts’ only child, William
Randolph, inherited the ranch property
upon Phoebe’s death in 1919.
William Randolph Hearst — newspaper
publisher, movie producer, and art collector
— built the historic estate called Hearst
Castle. On a San Simeon hilltop overlooking
the Pacific Ocean, La Cuesta Encantada
(Spanish for “The Enchanted Hill,” as
Mr. Hearst called it) was created by Mr.
Hearst and world-renowned architect Julia
Morgan. Construction — begun in 1919
and continuing until 1947 — was not fully
completed before Hearst’s death in 1951.
PARK HISTORY
During the mission era, the area of Hearst
San Simeon State Park and Historical
Monument served as an access point for
goods shipped to and from Monterey’s
Mission San Antonio. In 1932 the State
acquired more than 500 acres of beach
and inland parcels from local ranchers
to establish the state park. The park’s
Washburn Day-Use Area was a gravel
quarry until the late 1920s.
In 2005 Hearst Corporation donated
1,131 additional acres, expanding the
California Coastal Trail and protecting
this exceptional example of California’s
biological diversity, natural and cultural
resources, and unmatched scenery.
HEARST CASTLE®
The estate houses a world-renowned
collection of art. William Randolph Hearst
also built landscaped gardens and a
private zoo on the property. Descendants
of some of the zoo animals, including
zebras, can sometimes be seen today
grazing on the green hillsides of nearby
Hearst Ranch, still privately owned.
Donated to the State in December 1957
by Hearst Corporation, the estate was
opened to the public on June 2, 1958.
For information, see www.parks.ca.gov/
hearstcastle.
Hearst Castle, an accredited member of
the American Alliance of Museums, offers
guided, year-round tours. Call (800) 4444445 or visit www.hearstcastle.org for
tour reservations.
Tide pooling
RECREATIONAL ACTIVITIES
Many activities are available, including a trip
to the Hearst Castle Visitor Center, viewing a
movie at the Hearst Castle Theater, or taking
a tour of the Castle itself. Visitors will also
enjoy the Coastal Discovery Center — rich
in marine studies and activities. Boardwalks
stretching along the coastal areas allow
visitors to enjoy the wildlife, including the
elephant seals.
Additional activities include camping,
hiking, picnicking, walking the beach,
photography, windsurfing, kayaking, fishing,
surfing, and tide pooling. For camping
reservations, call 800-444-7275 or visit
www.parks.ca.gov/hearstsansimeonsp.
PARTNERShips
Look for Friends of the Elephant Seal
volunteers to learn about elephant seals.
Part of a nonprofit cooperating association
that interprets and protects elephant seals,
the blue-jacketed volunteers can be found
at the elephant seal vista points. See
www.elephantseal.org.
One of the world’s most diverse marine
ecosystems, the Monterey Bay National
Marine Sanctuary (MBNMS) encompasses a
shoreline length of 276 miles from Cambria to
Monterey, with 5,322 square miles of ocean.
The sanctuary protects the coastal resources
and offers such recreation as kite surfing,
kayaking, boating, surfing, and fishing.
California State Parks and the MBNMS
jointly operate the Coastal Discovery Center
at San Simeon Bay, across the road from
Hearst Castle. Volunteers will orient you to
the natural and cultural resources of Hearst
San Simeon State Park and the sanctuary.
Call (805) 927-6575 or visit the website at
http://montereybay.noaa.gov.
Visitors to Hearst Castle are surrounded
by the Hearst Ranch. The 80,000-acre Hearst
Ranch is one of the largest working cattle
ranches on the coast of California, and one of
the largest conservation easements in the U.S.
Today, Hearst Ranch specializes in grass-fed
beef and has won several awards in the beef
industry and for its stewardship of the
land. Visit www.hearstranch.com for
further details.
Piedras Blancas Light Station has been in
continual operation since 1875. Owned and
operated by the Bureau of Land Management
since 2001, the light station is still in use as a
navigational aid and for scientific research. To
learn about public tours of the Light Station,
visit www.blm.gov.
California Coastal National Monument
manages many of the small, off-coast rocks
that are teeming with life. The Bureau of
Land Management works with many
partners to protect this unique and very
fragile ecosystem.
Friends of Hearst Castle (FHC) is a
nonprofit cooperating organization that
supports preservation and interpretation
of the park. Through membership and
fundraising, FHC provides funding for
educational and interpretive programs
and artifact conservation programs. These
programs provide visitor appreciation and
enjoyment of this unique historical and
cultural resource. For specific details, visit
www.friendsofhearstcastle.org.
Coastal Discovery Center exhibit
Moonstone Boardwalk
PARK PROGRAMS
Interpretive programs include Junior Ranger
programs for children ages 7 to 12, guided hikes,
and campfire programs. Call (805) 927-2010 for
more information.
Accessible Features
Hearst San Simeon State Historical Monument
Accessible parking is designated. The ticket and
information area, restrooms, visitor center, Hearst
Castle Theater, and the gallery are accessible.
Accessible tours are provided. Assistive devices,
touchable artifacts, and Braille transcripts may be
requested. With advance notice, sign language
interpreters can be provided. Reservations are
highly recommended for the accessible tours.
Elephant Seal Boardwalk — Parking and the sealviewing boardwalk are accessible.
San Simeon Campground — Three sites have
accessibly designed picnic tables, level routes of
travel, and restrooms.
Washburn Campground — This undeveloped
campground has accessible sites, restrooms,
and routes of travel.
Washburn Day-Use Area— Accessible
trailhead, boardwalk, parking, and restrooms
are available at Washburn.
Moonstone Beach Boardwalk — This
accessible one-mile boardwalk follows the
coastal bluffs from the northern end of Cambria
to the mouth of Santa Rosa Creek.
Accessibility is continually improving. For
updates, visit http://access.parks.ca.gov.
Please Remember
• Never approach or feed wildlife.
• All features of the parks are protected by
state law and must not be disturbed.
• Stay on designated trails and paths.
• Watch out for poison oak, which causes
an itchy rash.
• Dogs must be on a leash no more than six
feet in length in campsites and along park
What is a Marine Protected Area?
Set aside by the Marine Life Protection Act, California’s marine protected areas (MPAs)
are geographic marine or estuarine areas that protect or conserve marine life and habitat.
Specific regulations apply to each area. Two MPAs lie just offshore from the parks:
Piedras Blancas State Marine Reserve and Cambria State Marine Park.
To learn more, visit www.dfg.ca.gov/marine/mpa.
roads. Except for service animals,
dogs are not permitted on any beaches
or trails other than the Moonstone
Beach Boardwalk.
• Only trained service animals are allowed
on Hearst Castle tours.
• Restaurants, shopping, service stations,
and hotels are located nearby in the towns
of San Simeon and Cambria.
Nearby State Parks
• Harmony Headlands State Park
18 miles south on Hwy. 1
Cayucos 93430 (805) 772-7434
• Estero Bluffs State Park
Hwy.1, Cayucos 93430 (805) 772-7434
• Morro Bay State Park and Museum
33 miles south, Morro Bay State Park Rd.
Morro Bay 93442 (805) 772-7434
• Montaña de Oro State Park
43 miles south, Pecho Valley Road
Los Osos 93402 (805) 772-7434
20
00
'
2000
'
2000'
1000
'
2000'
Hearst San Simeon
1000'
2000'
State Park and Historical Monument
1000'
'
00
20
00
'
10
2000'
Harmony Headlands SP
1000'
'
00
10
2000'
20
2000
'
00
'
00
20
'
Bu
rn
e
tt
PIEDRAS
BLANCAS
20
Van
Go
on Cree k
rd
00
'
SMR
10
00
'
'
2000
'
0'
1000
1000'
0'
300
0'
200
Major Road
3000'
Paved Road
Unpaved Road
Accessible Trail
Trail
State Park Property
2000
'
State Marine Park
State Marine Reserve
1000'
Accessible Feature
'
00
20
Boat Launch
Boating
Bridge
1000'
Call Box
200'
Campground
Campsite Center
Dogs Allowed on Leash
Van Gord
on
Lighthouse
Marsh
No Bicycles Allowed
200'
No Dogs Allowed
CAMBRIA
Parking
SMP
Picnic Area
Post Office
Primitive Campground
Restrooms
RV Sanitation Station
Showers
Trailhead
Viewpoint
Visitor Center
© 2009 California State Parks (Rev. 2015)
Map by Eureka Cartography, Berkeley, CA
ad
Va
ee
o
ek R
Cre
Cr
Hike/Bike Campground
on
Fishing
k
Drinking Water
n
Go
rd