A Visit to Hearst Castle

The reason why we were in this part of California at all is because I wanted to see Hearst Castle. Looking around for a place to stay, Camp San Luis Obispo was the best recommended for the best price. And by staying there, we discovered the whole area of San Luis Obispo. Travel is like that. You find one thing while looking for another, and soon a new world has been opened up to you, one you’d like to revisit again and again.

The bonus to staying near San Luis Obispo is that we had to drive up the Pacific coastal highway 1 to get to Hearst Castle. I had purchased timed tickets for our visit and we allowed plenty of time for stops along the way. This is when I snapped the beautifully clear photo of Morro Rock that I posted earlier. The turnoff to the castle is just south of San Simeon.

Hearst Castle was built by William Randolph Hearst, on land he inherited from his father. George Hearst purchased 40,000 acres of ranch land in 1865. George made a fortune, lost it, made two new fortunes. It was a major stake in the gold that came out of the South Dakota Black Hills, though, that clinched his wealth. William inherited the land upon the death of his mother in 1919 and eventually expanded the spread to 250,000 acres.

When we were standing here, at this spot in the gardens, we could see for about thirty-seven miles. That used to be about the extent of his property. Now, much of it has been sold off and only 83,000 acres are still owned.

William R. Hearst expanded on his father’s wealth in newspaper publishing beginning in the late 1800’s. By the turn of the century, one in four newspapers printed was a Hearst newspaper.

His family loved to come up to the ranch. In 1919 he found an architect, Julia Morgan, and famously asked her if she could build something a little more comfortable to stay in than tents up on the hill. For over thirty years she worked closely with him. The castle is still unfinished, although I didn’t see any evidence of that.

This is only partially the result, the grand entrance of the house:

We actually started our tour by getting on a bus at the visitor center, and rode up through verdant countryside and around the hill before arriving at the mansion. As we rode, we were given taped introduction to the castle narrated by none other than the lately departed Alex Trebek from Jeopardy. When we first arrived, we walked through gorgeous gardens, our tour guide giving us a lot of information as we went.

In the right corner of the above picture is one of the guest houses. There are three at Hearst castle, and another is shown below. There is a tour just to visit the guest houses at Hearst, which would all be worth seeing in their own right.

Soon, views of the main house began to peek out at us. At the time, I didn’t really know if it was the house or something like a private chapel!

We saw a video about Hearst’s life in the visitors center after our tour. In 1873, his mother wanted to educate him on the finer things of life and took him on the grand tour of Europe when he was only 10. I loved seeing this as they showed many of the places that I have also seen. This trip affected him as much as it did me over one hundred years later. I don’t have a fortune to purchase all of the pieces of castles, monasteries, and other antiquities that he did, though.

Those pieces are what Julia Morgan incorporated into the design of Hearst Castle. The top of the structure by the pool is from ancient Rome, and was Julia’s inspiration for creating the Neptune Pool. An artist by the name of Charles Cassou created the statuary.

The first room we entered upon going through the golden gates is the assembly room, which would be a living room to you and me. Guests would gather here for conversation and cocktails before dinner. One of the things you see here, just to give an idea of the treasures Hearst amassed, is an 18th century monastery chant book on the table that is so large that it has wheels:

Tapestries hanging in this room are the remaining four of a set of ten that are 500 years old and depict the defeat of Hannibal.

The dining room is done in Gothic style. It reminded me of the dining room at Hogwarts Castle, if you are a Harry Potter fan.

It was here that our guide mentioned that Hearst wanted to give the visitor a taste of the art and architecture of Europe without traveling there. He and Julia nailed it. Every piece was exquisite, had history to tell, and was wonderfully incorporated with the work of artists and designers of the day. At the same time, though, I wondered if some of this stuff shouldn’t have stayed back in a museum in Europe, where it originally came from. Times were different back in the early 20th century.

If it was too cold or rainy to swim in the pool outside, you could always swim in the indoor Roman pool. It’s styled like an ancient Roman bath, with heated water. There are eight statues of Roman gods and goddesses, created by an Italian sculptor in the 1930’s.

We sat in the theatre, where Hearst would show movies to his guests. One of those was Clark Gable, who watched the movie Gone With the Wind which he himself starred in. Hearst would also film his guests having fun at the castle, and we watched some clips of those.

Among Hearst’s guests were politicians such as Winston Churchill and Calvin Coolidge, and folks from the entertainment industry: Charlie Chaplin, Gary Cooper, Greta Garbo, Carole Lombard, and Harpo Max, to name a few. Other guests were Howard Hughes and George Bernard Shaw. Some I recognized in the black and white film clips but most I did not.

There were also tennis courts and horses for riding. There was once even the world’s largest private zoo. We could see the bear pits as we rode up to the castle. All of this opulence comes at a cost, however. Hearst spent prodigiously not only on this property but also on other ones that he owned, eventually bankrupting himself. The animals were sold off to pay debts, but zebras can still be seen mingling with cattle herds on the hills around the castle. I had hoped to see them, but we did not on this day.

Both our tour guide and a couple of folks in the visitor center told us not to miss seeing the elephant seals at Elephant Seal Beach, just a short drive further up the Pacific Coast Highway. So after leaving the castle we had a late tailgate lunch overlooking the beach, and then walked over to see the seal rookery.

This is the Piedras Blancas colony of elephant seals, which number about 25,000. They are never all here at the same time, and they only come up on shore for only four or five weeks. The ones that we saw were adult females as well as juveniles that had been out at sea all winter. They were shedding old skin and hair while growing a new one.

This was truly an unforgettable sight, and a superb finish to this day.

Next time – back east to the national parks