May 5, 2010

PCH - Pacific Coast Highway - San Simeon, Hearst Castle - Big Sur - Monterey
Well! All I can say is OH MY GOD! The coast road about 100 miles from the Hearst Castle up to Big Sur and Monterey was unbelievable, scary, breathtaking and everything you have ever heard. I would have been scared in a car and here I was on the back of a motorcycle in gusty winds.
We started the day at 59 degrees at about 8:45am leaving Lompoc, CA. Views were beautiful so different from what I had thought I would see; rolling hills and meadows as far as the eye can see, green pastures reminded me of Ireland without the rock walls. I tried taking a picture of the road sign while we were riding, "California Route 1 Pacific Coast Highway" but didn't do too well. We passed Vandenberg AFB, passed lots of farms, cattle ranches with distant mountains in the morning haze, even got a little lost in a small village and ended up in the dunes. We saw strawberry and cabbage fields as far as you could see.
Then we arrived at San Simeon visitor center and spent the next 3 hours on the tour to the Hearst Castle. It was so much more that I realized, it was a 5 mile bus trip up the mountain to the Castle which is called Casa Grande or his ranch as Hearst called it. Our 3 hour tour didn't even cover all the buildings and all of the castle. We did see one of the guest houses, the outdoor pool and inside pool as well as some of the first floor, dinning room, living areas. The views were breathtaking all the way to the ocean. Hearst owned land as far as you could see 300 square miles. The tour also included a movie of the building of the castle, "Building the Dream".
Then we started the most exciting part of the route. It was windy and we considered turning around and taking another route but continued then we were committed as there is no other way out after you start. Riding along the sheer mountain cliffs on the right side where rocks and landslides had occurred, with sheer mountain drops to the ocean on the other side thank god we were going north as we were on the inside lane. A few times we had one lane as they were working on landslides. We came around a few curves and the wind gusts got under our helmets and we thought we were going to be blown off the bike. Let me tell you I said my prayers.
It is everything your have read and heard, spectacular coastline, ever-changing cliffs, pounding surf. We drove through Big Sur, crossing several bridges including the famous Bixby Bridge, 700 feet long and 260 feet above the stream below and is one of the top ten highest single-span bridges in the world.
Big Sur with its weathered redwoods, was a relief after just seeing cliffs down to the ocean.
I have crossed this coast road off my bucket list and do not plan to do it again in a hurry.