Monthly Archives: May 2016

San Simeon State Park and Hearst Castle

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The Quick and Dirty:

Location: San Simeon State Beach is located  south of Hearst Castle and north of Cambria, CA. It is about a 4 hour drive north of Los Angeles.
Activities around San Simeon State Beach: Easy walking access to a beautiful stretch of beaches and within a 15 minute drive to William Randolph Hearst’s famous Hearst Castle.
Good to know: Camping spots at San Simeon state beach can be reserved through reserveamerica.com and it fills up quickly over the summer and weekends. Advanced booking is highly recommended.
Camping Fees: $35 car camping fee per night. The campsites are small but it can fit 3 backpacking tents or 2 Coleman (car camping) tents. The $35 fee only covers entrance fee for one car, each additional cars are $10.
Hearst Castle Tour Fees: $25/person for the grand room tour.  If you are interested in a guided tour at Hearst Castle on a weekend, it’s a good idea to make advanced reservations at least a couple days before your visit. This is a popular tourist destination and tickets have been known to sell out on the day of.

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Windy day on San Simeon State Beach

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Road Trip Up the Coast of California

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We truly believe we live in one of the most beautiful places in the world. Whether it’s going east towards the majestic mountains of the Sierra Nevada or driving up and down the California coast, the scenery always takes my breath away. For our week long vacation, we decided to take a road rip up the coast of California from Orange County all the way up to Redwood National and State Park.P1080885

Over the next couple of weeks I will update the blog with detailed trip reports of each of the places we visited. See links below to jump to any one of the places that interests you:

Saturday (Day 1)- Car Camping at San Simeon State Park
Sunday (Day 2)- Morning guided tour of the Hearst Castle and back packing into Sykes hot springs in Big Sur, California
Monday (Day 3)- Hike out from Sykes hot springs and drive to Medocino, California Tuesday (Day 4)- Drive to Redwood State and National Park
Wednesday (Day 5)- Day hikes around Redwood State Park and car camping at Elk Prairie campground
Thursday (Day 6)- Depart from Redwood State and National Park and drive south to Sonoma, California
Friday (Day 7)- Day in Sonoma, drive to San Francisco to visit friends
Saturday (Day 8)- Drive home to Orange County

The Google Map shown below outlines our travel itinerary along with the links of the detailed blog post on each place.