Day Three: Big Sur and Down to San Simeon
We got going fairly early (after coffee from the little cafe attached to the hotel) and headed back down to Big Sur. Stopped at a couple of state parks hoping for short walks, but most of the trails were closed due to high water. We finally drove all the way south to Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, where we walked in to see McWay Falls, the famous waterfall that spouts directly into the ocean. That’s it on the left…it may be slightly overrated…
We were hoping to get further south, but the going is so slow south of Big Sur village that we decided to turn north and try and get in a short walk in the redwoods, which we did–although hardly out in nature, since the walk wound around the Big Sur lodge!
The trip to San Simeon took a while: we had to go back north to Monterey, then inland, then south through an agricultural valley before turning back west near Paso Robles in order to get to the coast again. The drive down through the barren hill country is spectacular, and the coast, while less interesting than further north, is still beautiful.
Hearst Castle is much more beautiful and much less kitschy than I remembered. At least the exterior, which forms a Spanish Colonial village.
And the site, high above the sea, is splendid. Xanadu indeed!
OK, the inside is completely wacko…the product of some perverse idea of European splendor. American money at its worst.
We did have a great guide and really got a sense for what life was like when The Chief was alive.
Sue was of course especially taken with the pool, which is a gorgeous Roman bath.
We checked into our motel, which was wildly overpriced but perfectly nice, and decided on a local farm to table in Cambria called Robin’s. It was pretty good, with a couple of good courses and some missteps, but then we had Passionfish in our memory!