Our Mission “ Hearst The mission of California State Parks is I love this ranch. It is to provide for the health, inspiration and education of the people of California by helping wonderful. I love the sea San Simeon to preserve the state’s extraordinary biological and I love the mountains diversity, protecting its most valued natural and State Park cultural resources, and creating opportunities and the hollows in the hills and Historical Monument for high-quality outdoor recreation. and the shady places in the creeks and the fine old oaks and even the hot brushy hillsides . I would rather California State Parks supports equal access. Prior to arrival, visitors with disabilities who spend a month here than need assistance should contact the park at (805) 927-2035. If you need this publication in an any place in the world.” alternate format, contact [email protected]. - William Randolph Hearst, CALIFORNIA STATE PARKS in a letter to his mother, P.O. Box 942896 Phoebe Apperson Hearst 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 H earst San Simeon State Park and older marine terrace deposits. In gobies, steelhead trout, Western Hearst San Simeon State Historical the park, Cambria slab sandstone snowy plovers, golden eagles, Monument® preserve more than 20 miles — visible at Leffingwell and longbilled curlews. From of dramatic central California coastline. Landing— becomes Franciscan November to February, Located 35 miles north of San Luis mélange toward the north. The monarch butterflies roost in Obispo along scenic Highway 1, the parks mélange material is a mixture the Monterey pines. frame shoreline vistas of beaches, rocky of sandstone, chert, basalt, Bird watchers will be amazed promontories, and magnificent views of the greenstone, serpentine, shale, by the diverse number of Santa Lucia Mountains and Hearst Castle®. eclogite, and blueschist. This birds to see at the beach, in the The Mediterranean climate is typically assemblage contains all three rock wetlands, and along the trails. mild, with average daytime highs of 69 types — igneous, sedimentary, Look for black phoebes, white-tailed degrees and evening lows of 42 degrees. and metamorphic — and has a very kites, mergansers, egrets, and black Rain is most likely from January through jumbled appearance. oystercatchers. March. Spring and summer are pleasant Low, rolling mima mounds, a unique Low tides reveal tide pools with during the day, cooling in the evening as geological feature in some of the park’s seastars, chitons, limpets, turban snails, wind moves fog in from the ocean. grasslands, are found near vernal pools — barnacles, and fish. Please leave the seasonal pools with abundant plant and plants and animals of the tide pools NATURAL HISTORY animal life. undisturbed; they are vulnerable to The diverse habitats of these two parks Wildlife human impact and are protected by law. include wetlands, seashore, grassland, Bobcats and coyotes hunt for brush From December to April, gray whales coastal scrub, and riparian areas. Offshore, rabbits, gray tree squirrels, and California migrate past this stretch of coastline on four state marine protected areas conserve ground squirrels; black-tail deer graze their way to and from feeding grounds in underwater resources. Cambria State on hillsides. Sensitive species include Alaska to birthing waters in Mexico. Marine Park became California State Parks’ California red-legged frogs, tidewater first classified state marine park in 2010. Geology This part of the coastline consists mostly of geologically young alluvial sediment and Arroyo de la Cruz manzanita, adobe sanicle, (1772), within 50 miles; and Mission San Hickman’s onion, Blochman’s dudleya, Miguel Arcángel (1779), with an outpost at and Arroyo de la Cruz mariposa lily. Prairie San Simeon. grasslands are among the area’s native The typical mission landscape included plant communities. ranch stations, aqueducts, quarries, kilns, crop lands, and grazing. In some areas, AREA HISTORY entire native plant communities were Native People destroyed by the heavy grazing of Archaeological evidence suggests that Young elephant seal napping mission livestock. ancestors of today’s Chumash and Salinan In 1833 Mexican government officials Don’t miss the fascinating northern people inhabited this part of the coast for began to give out the newly secularized elephant seals. From December to March, thousands of years, adapting to climatic mission holdings as land grants. They they can easily be seen resting, having and environmental changes. They traveled divided the former mission properties into pups, battling, and mating on the beach from the coast to the interior valleys, three ranchos: Piedra Blanca, Santa Rosa, up the road from San Simeon Bay at following the abundant marine and and San Simeon. Cattle ranching was still scenic vista points on the coast side terrestrial resources. Their diet included the major enterprise, as it had been during of Highway 1. fish, shellfish, wild game, waterfowl, and the the mission period. Plants grasses and seeds found inland. Taking advantage of gray whales’ annual Native plant communities include Clothing, shelter, and tools were made migration between Baja California and riparian, wetland, Monterey pine from resources available in the immediate Alaska, Portuguese whaler Joseph Clark set forest, oak woodland, coastal sage area; the natives traded other groups for up a whaling station at San Simeon Bay scrub, chaparral, coastal strand, and those goods that could not be procured or in 1852. From December to April, whale grassland. Look for willow, coast live produced locally. spotters on the bluffs watched for the oak, cottonwood, wax myrtle, blackberry Settlement and Enterprise white plumes of spray as a whale surfaced. bushes, and a great display of seasonal In 1769 the first European overland Small boats were then launched to capture wildflowers. Take a hike through the expedition, led by Gaspar de Portolá, made the whale and haul it into the station for Monterey pine forest — one of only five its way up the coast of California, clearing processing. At the peak of the whaling native groups left in the world — on the the way for Spanish missionaries. The period, 45 buildings — including a general Hearst San Simeon State Park Nature mission system brought drastic, permanent store, a blacksmith shop, a barbershop, Trail, reachable from the campground and change in the lifeways of the indigenous and a saloon — stood at San Simeon, and the Washburn day-use area. people, who now had to adopt new means 22 families lived on the point. The whaling The park is of subsistence. station’s general store is the only building home to rare Local missions included Mission dating back to San Simeon’s whaling days. and endangered San Antonio de Padua (1771), with San Simeon plants, including an outpost at San Carpoforo Creek; Roads into this remote section of the coast maritime ceanothus, Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa were almost nonexistent until about 1850. dwarf goldenstars, Arroyo de la Cruz manzanita Sailing vessels and steamships stopped PARK HISTORY at San Simeon to deliver freight and During the mission era, the area of Hearst load cargoes of mining and agricultural San Simeon State Park and Historical equipment for delivery to San Francisco Monument served as an access point for and Los Angeles. Around 1850, the horse goods shipped to and from Monterey’s trail between San Simeon and San Luis Mission San Antonio. In 1932 the State Obispo was expanded, allowing acquired more than 500 acres of beach small carts to take agricultural and inland parcels from local ranchers products to San Simeon for to establish the state park. The park’s shipment. However, the trail was Washburn Day-Use Area was a gravel passable only in dry weather, and quarry until the late 1920s. shipping by steamer continued for Roman Pool at Hearst Castle In 2005 Hearst Corporation donated another 20 years. 1,131 additional acres, expanding the Later, gasoline-powered trucks and he raised cattle and race California Coastal Trail and protecting railroad service to San Luis Obispo brought horses. That year Mr. Hearst this exceptional example of California’s about changes in shipping patterns. By became a member of the biological diversity, natural and cultural Greek hydria, 1915 the practice of shipping by steamer California State Assembly, resources, and unmatched scenery. 5th century B.C. had ended. In 1937 the highway now and was elected to the U.S. ® known as California State Route One Senate in 1886. When he died in 1891, his HEARST CASTLE was completed. wife Phoebe Apperson Hearst inherited The estate houses a world-renowned The Hearst Family Rancho Piedra Blanca, later adding more collection of art. William Randolph Hearst In 1850 Missourian George Hearst, drawn property that had once been the whaling also built landscaped gardens and a by the gold rush, arrived in California with station. The Hearsts’ only child, William private zoo on the property. Descendants mining experience. He staked several Randolph, inherited the ranch property of some of the zoo animals, including claims throughout the West. upon Phoebe’s death in 1919. zebras, can sometimes be seen today Although Hearst managed William Randolph Hearst — newspaper grazing on the green hillsides of nearby several other types of publisher, movie producer, and art collector Hearst Ranch, still privately owned. businesses around — built the historic estate called Hearst Donated to the State in December 1957 the state, he made Castle. On a San Simeon hilltop overlooking by Hearst Corporation, the estate was his fortune from the the Pacific Ocean,La Cuesta Encantada opened to the public on June 2, 1958.