Driving up the Pacific Coast - Day 3

As luck would have it, the threatening clouds of the evening before turned into blue skies in the morning.  A short drive south of Morro Bay is the beautiful Montana de Oro State Park with its many trails and diverse landscape, including even a mountain. We had a lovely hike along the coastal trail with its dramatic ocean views, Pacific waves crashing on the many rocky outcrops along the shore, rugged cliffs, shore birds, including pelicans and the occasional hawk.

It was an easy flat trail and we could have gone on for much longer, enticed by one vista after another.  We kept saying to ourselves, we'll turn back after the next view!   In the end we have to turn back because we wanted to make it to Hearst Castle and see the elephant seals before sunset.  

There was a high surf warning, which made it a great day for us surf watchers...

Wave after wave rolling in, possibly a precursor of the storm coming down the coast 

A surprise rainbow in the clouds

Lots of these outcrops can be seen along the trail

Before we left Morro Bay, we paid another visit to the sea otter families and saw them in much better light.

Mom and pup

Sea otter family

Happily basking in the sun

We made it to San Simeon for lunch and was hoping to enjoy some good food at the vineyard there, but was surprised there was no restaurant!  We had to settle for cafeteria food at the Castle (yes, not even a bakery, because it's a State Park!).

The pier at San Simeon

You can see the castle all the way up the hill

The outdoor terraces 

The outdoor pool - but wait till you see the one inside!

A pretty niche in the garden

The front entrance

The cavernous "living room"

Dining room

In my opinion, the indoor pool was the most striking feature in the castle.  

The view of the ocean from the castle

We managed to find the elephant seal rookery just up the road from the castle, thanks to our bumping into a volunteer in the parking lot (we went in the wrong direction up the beach and couldn't find the seals. We spent a whole hour there as there were a lot of action going on.  Two bulls were fighting "till death do us part".  They were all bloodied but still battling from the beach all the way into the water.  This is the perfect time to visit with some moms still nursing pups, while some continue to mate, and bulls fighting over their territory (apparently testosterone surged to 60 times the normal level at this time).

Nursing elephant seal

Mating - the female looked really excited...;-)

Two bulls fighting to the bitter end (we didn't stay to see who won as they had been fighting for an hour or more by sunset)

            

Adorable pup

Another Pacific sunset - drama in the skies, jacob's ladders galore

This wraps up our south to north Pacific Coast trip.  The following morning, the rain finally caught up with us.  It was pouring rain so we thought it safest to go up 101 instead of the PCH.  Having driven up this way before, I remembered how treacherous it was in the rain, not to mention parts of it were still closed from the winter rains.  Our original itinerary was to visit Big Sur and the Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park with its magical waterfall.  A good excuse for another trip down this beautiful stretch of coast.

Thanks for coming along for the ride.