Our public transit-friendly foursome heeded the first advice, ignored the second and still had a memorable trip to tack on to sightseeing in Los Angeles or equidistant San Francisco.
Amtrak’s very affordable Pacific Surfliner train departs from both major cities, with the ocean almost lapping the tracks, running alongside the famous Highway 1 beaches at Ventura, Santa Barbara, Lompoc and Pismo. We saw our first mounted cowboy cross the tracks before leaving L.A. city limits and spent the next few hours marvelling at the ranches and citrus groves in Simi Valley. On the other side, rust coloured hills tumbled down spectacular cliffs to the crashing surf.
The Surfliner steers inland within an hour from Hearst Castle, taking in the small-town vibe of San Luis Obispo. “SLO” is home of Cal Polytechnic, a rare Frank Lloyd Wright designed commercial building and Bubblegum Alley, with sticky souvenirs slapped on the walls since the 1960s. There’s plenty of incentive to explore the county at large sans auto (check slocarfree.org with its food and lodging discounts) or get right to Hearst with connecting bus service from San Luis Obispo to the oceanside towns of Morro Bay, Cambria and San Simeon.
Morro Bay — “Gibraltar of the Pacific” — is dominated by its 176-metre volcanic plug, a landmark and eco preserve attracting fish, birds and sea lions. Start or end a day of observing the wildlife with a pierside meal or shopping the quaint boutiques on the docks overlooking the Rock and its natural harbour. Tucked into a pine-shaded slope on the road to the Castle is the art colony of Cambria, with charming B&Bs.
About 13 km further on by car, taxi or bus is La Cuesta Enchanta (Enchanted Hill), the 55-hectare wonder conceived by publisher-art collector-movie mogul William Randolph Hearst, 20-plus years in the making.
If he meant to tease and tantalize guests such as Charles Lindbergh, Gloria Swanson and Winston Churchill about what treasures awaited them at the top, Hearst certainly succeeded as the drive looped around and up the hill.
Our family didn’t arrive on a yacht or land at the private air strip as the VIPs once did — everyone now embarks by tram from the visitors’ centre — but at ground level you can see some zebras, horses, long horn sheep and cattle, descended from those Hearst let roam free on the 102 hectares that once surrounded the Castle.
Though aged 56 when he cleared this land, Hearst fondly recalled the great cities of the world he’d toured as a boy and entrusted the re-creation of that splendour to San Francisco architect Julia Morgan. Classically trained in a Paris design school, yet familiar with the challenges of engineering a hilltop mansion in a earthquake fault, Morgan stayed in Hearst’s employ 27 years, creating the four principal dwellings, notably the Casa Grande, as well as indoor/outdoor pools, bridle path, tennis courts and everything from greenhouses to animal shelters.
Though Morgan’s detailed blueprints were often torn up at the boss’s whim, her signature is the twin-towered Casa. With 115 rooms, 26 bedrooms, 32 bathrooms, two libraries, a 2,000 square feet Medieval dining room and theatre (his studio’s films played every night, today his old home movies), this would rival the palaces of medieval Europe.
Sparing no expense, complete rooms and furnishings from the great houses of Europe were shipped to San Simeon. Different tours highlight the Casa, the gardens and guest houses, each its own architectural and art pleasure. Morgan also factored the frequent ocean mist into her plans, thus the castle is often pictured floating on a fairy tale cloud bank.
In Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane, the Castle is satirized as Xanadu, where Hearst’s unflattering Kane leads an unfulfilled life with his small-time actress/mistress, based on his real-life companion Marion Davies.
It’s hard to determine how much Hearst finally paid for the project which was constantly being revamped (the famous Neptune pool with its ancient Roman flourishes was enlarged three times) and was being expanded in the late 1940s before Hearst’s health faded. It has been pegged at $6 million US in Depression-era funds to build and another $6 million to furnish, though Hearst’s huge collection still didn’t fill the halls.
Painstaking renovations are ongoing, but don’t delay your visit too long as Calfornia’s soft economy is expected to result in funding cuts to these state parks.
(Hearst donated the property to the state of California and it is a now a state historic park.) For more information, see hearstcastle.org.
lance.hornby@sunmedia.ca
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