San Simeon SP (23 - 26 August)

Thursday August 23rd

The twisting road of the Big Sur coast lulled Rob and Maarten to sleep. As the road finally straightens I hope to see the Hearst Castle, the destination of this weekend trip. I know this is going to be different but I’m excited the same way I’ve used to be long time ago by spotting castles in Czech.

And there it is on top of one of the sunny hills on my left! It fits beautifully with the landscape.
We will see more tomorrow.

The camping is less impressive. We still have a nice secluded site and hope we can enjoy couple of nice days here. The walk to the beach is short but we have to go under the busy highway. The sites next to the highway are exposed to a loud noise of the passing cars. We are lucky to be more inlands even we still can hear it.



Maarten is so happy to be on the beach again. The water is cooler than I’ve expected. There is a huge flock of seagulls, pelicans, crows and other kinds of birds on the beach and around the San Simeon Creek. Maarten is scared of crows but the birds are too tempting to run after.









Friday August 24th

This is the first night I’m not freezing. Yes, I’ve finally bought a new sleeping bag and it really makes a difference. I can’t believe it but it’s keeping me nice and toasty…. till three o’clock! Why so early? Ask our neighbors!
Anyway they are leaving so we have a good hope!
Today we have a reservation at the Hearst Castle. We have to park our car at the visitor center and take the bus to get to the castle on the top of the hill. The curly five mile drive through the Hearst Ranch is a pleasant trip. I love the 20’s music they play on the bus. While traveling we see the animal shelters of the past private ZOO and the remains of the mile long pergola which was built for a walking path.
We are doing the Garden Tour not just because of my interests in gardening but especially because of Maarten ;-) He is most impressed by the bus ride of course. And we had hard time to keep him away from the Hearst’s two swimming pools:

Neptune Pool









and Roman Pool.














We still visit some indoors like the guest house Casa del Mar.


This cozy residence with a stunning view of the hills and ocean is built and furnished like being this way for ages.




I was warned to see an American kitsch and arrogance of a rich man who collected antique European objects to build his American dream.
I can't agree! I find the Hearst family story very fascinating and can’t think of the castle in any negative way.
On the contrary I would hardly recommend visiting it.

Too bad Hearst couldn’t bring his dream to an end. But that’s the part of the whole story...



Saturday August 25th

Another night I couldn’t fully enjoy my warm sleeping bag. We are thinking of going home since the camping reminds us rather a roomy parking lot than a nature setting. We decide to stay and try to enjoy the nice coast anyway. We hike from the Leffingwell Landing to the Moonstone Beach. It is too warm for hiking today but this is an easy stroll. A lot of tourists are watching the surfers waiting for perfect waves.

We see some seals at the cliffs and turkey vultures who don’t want to share their prey with seagulls.

This evening we get new neighbors. A group of surfers and they are ready for the party!
Even the ear plugs are not working properly. What a nightmare!





Sunday August 26th


Passing the Hearst Ranch on our way home I spot a coyote wandering near the highway and we see a herd of grazing zebra’s, the descendants of those from the Hearst Castle Zoo.

We make a stop at the Piedras Blancas to watch the elephant seals and sea lions rookery. Here you can’t come so close like at the Año Nuevo SP but considering the mass tourism here it is better to keep the tourists at a safe distance.
We are looking for signs not to miss the cliffs of Jade Cove. We park at the Jade Cove Beach hoping this is it. I take the path descending down the picnic area to check it out. It is very steep and treacherous at certain places so I’m happy Rob is waiting up there with Maarten.

I can’t find much of jade but a rocky beach. I believe this beautiful spot is already a treasure. Rob and Maarten don't come even to the lookout above the cove. I wonder why. They have a better show.

There is a huge rattlesnake under the stairs leading down from the parking lot! I believe he was already there when I went down. I just stepped over it.

Big Sur (weekend 4 - 7 May)

May 4th
Pfeiffer Big Sur SP
After a heavy rainfall during the night we woke up in a gray foggy Friday morning. Not very much what we’ve hoped for our first weekend camping trip. However the weather forecast was very promising so there was still a hope.
After an hour and something we’ve finally got a view of the sea and even still in the morning fog the rocky shore was beautiful as always.
By the time we arrived to the campground of the Pfeiffer Big Sur SP the fog was completely gone and it was nice dry and warm. No reason to be worried about setting the tent in the rain anymore. We loved the campground and we were really surprised about the size of our tent site. A huge spacious site next to a dry arm of the Big Sur River. We still had an easy access to the river but considering Maarten’s age we were lucky our site were not directly adjoining it. Maarten loved to watch the squirrels, crows and Steller’s jays coming very close to us. But you had to be very careful with all your food! In the evening a deer came very close to our tent. We should be aware since we were the intruders into their territory. I just wonder how will be my feelings to camp in the bear country. In Pfeiffer BS SP ‘only’ the mountain lion is already a good reason to beware.
I should have known that to go camping with a toddler would be a challenge. That Maarten was like a ball of dust and was hard to keep him away from the water faucet was not a big deal at all. Another issue was the abundance of the poison oak and the art to explain why he should stay away just from this particular shrub.
It seemed Maarten enjoyed himself very much till he had to go to sleep in the tent. The first night he would just continue to ask about us. The whole night! And all the time his little hands would search for me which I would consider very sweat during the day... All of us were freezing during the first night since the tent we’ve bought is ‘only’ three season tent which means very much open! We learned a lesson from this again. Maybe it’s the age already? All the tents in the campground seemed to be just 'three season' so what’s wrong with us?! It’s already years ago I’ve been camping and our tent used to be ‘just a tent’ for any season. Anyway we’ve already found a solution for that.

May 5th
Julia Pfeiffer Burns SP/Pfeiffer Beach
Fortunately the weather on Saturday was so nice so we could warm up after the cold night.
We took a half mile trail with breathtaking views of the McWay Falls which descents some 24 meter (80 feet) onto a beautiful sandy beach.
Afterwards a short trail along the McWay Creek took us to an another high waterfall at the end of the redwood-forested canyon.
We had to drive carefully not to miss the exit for the famous Pfeiffer beach with its huge rock monolith. You have to cross a small lagoon to get to the beach. This lagoon was probably utmost attractive for Maarten. Even it cost us a huge effort to keep him away of the water he managed to jump there twice. It meant I run out of all his spare clothing for the day. So he end up in Rob’s T-shirt. Even it was extremely windy there it couldn’t spoil the enjoyment of this beautiful spot.
The return to our tent was less romantic. It doesn’t matter whose fault this was or how they did get in but our tent was attacked! Remains of our foods together with the squirrel excrements. What a dirty mess!


May 6th
Pfeiffer Big Sur SP
On the hot Sunday we decided to stay in the shade of the redwoods and we did the popular hike to the Pfeiffer Falls together with the Valley View Trail Loop. Maarten doesn’t want to sit in the back carrier anymore but sometimes it is necessary when we need to get somewhere since his biggest hobby on the trails is to collect stones to chase the potential puma away. ;-)
And on Sunday was it for the first time he would take his afternoon nap in the tent!


May 7th
Andrew Molera SP
Another hot day and our last day at the camp. :-( I didn’t want to leave at all. I just wonder why we haven’t done this before...
On our way home we made a stop at the Andrew Molera SP and we took a wonderful one mile hike through some beautiful coastal terrain. We had to wade the Big Sur River to continue through some lovely secluded coastal area with an abundance of wildflowers.
This trail leads to a beautiful beach. A stunning place to end up our wonderful weekend at the Big Sur coast.
PS: The temperature in San Ramon when we arrived home at 6 p.m.: 92 ºF (some 34 ºC)!