San Simeon State Park

We left the Pinnacles and drove to Hearst San Simeon State Park.  They assign the campsites there and we were delighted to be placed next to each other on the lower loop.  We discovered it was a short walk to the beach which we took several times.  In the evening bats flew out from under the Highway One bridge while water birds dabbled in the slough getting their last tidbits for the night. 

The next day we drove up to San Simeon parking lot to catch one of the first buses to the castle.  Julia Morgan was the architect and Hearst was the money bags with an enthusiastic taste for Europe that left an ornate but tasteful complex.  It is amazingly popular as a Hollywood gawker attraction and soon the crowds of tour groups were overwhelming.  We were done with the gardens and sculptures and rode the bus back down the hill and returned to the campground for lunch.  We were then ready for a hike so we drove up to a parking lot billed as Elephant Seal Boardwalk.  Untold numbers of these large creatures - mostly females and young - were coating the beaches as far you could see.  The public was held back by a cyclone fence along the bluff.  I doubt that anyone would want to go down on the beach but I can remember back before Ana Nuevo was cordoned off as a State Park, that we would wander out on the beach and you could decide how close you were comfortable with.  Yes, people were killed as they tried to carve their initials on the sleeping behemoths.  We headed north along the coast, first on a boardwalk and then on a bluff hike all the way to the Piedras Blancas lighthouse.  Unfortunately it is closed except for weekly tours.  After returning to the campground we went on another beach stroll after supper and while exploring in the waning light, found an ailing sea lion on the beach. 

F&E drove home the next day so we started the day by going back to check on the sea lion.  It wasn't there but there was an amazing display of swallows going in and out of a hole on a large, guano-covered rock in the water. Then we found another beached, emaciated sea lion.  After poking around we walked south towards Cambria, passing a dead sea lion.  The theory is that these poor sea lions are not finding enough food in the warming ocean.  During the walk, we found a ranger who facilitated our calling Marine Mammal Center, a Morro Bay satellite of the Sausalito one.  They took down my information and we went back on our walk.  After lunch in Cambria, we headed back north on the beach and headlands, depending on the higher tide.  I noted some tire tracks of a small vehicle that seemed to go out from our campground area.  It went up to where I expected to find the sick sea lion.  Hopefully they picked up the still alive animal and it is in rehabilitation somewhere.