California Coast & Ocean

It’s all open to the public now, all 13 miles--949 acres--of the gorgeous natural coastline that was added to the state park system in 2005 as part of the historic $95-million Hearst Ranch conservation deal. The basic amenities most parks provide--restrooms, designated parking, and developed trails--are almost entirely missing, and you won’t find many signs and signals to point your way. In some places you have to climb fences and even slip through holes in barbed wire if you want to reach the shore. You’re on your own and have to exercise due caution. But what a treat it is to have this wild coast to explore.

Supervising State Park Ranger Leander Tamoria and environmental scientist Brian Barandon helped David Sneed of the San Luis Obispo Tribune find his way along this spectacular shoreline so he could tell the public about it. Here, in four parts, are some hiking options in the newly expanded San Simeon State Park, based on Sneed’s articles, published in 2006 and abridged and updated here with the Tribune’s permission. Note that these articles are not a guide to the park. They are a set of hints, clues, and observations that may help you decide where to hike, where to take Highway 1 to the next place to pull off, where to linger, fish, or watch wildlife.

Blufftop Trails and Tidepools
Junge Ranch to Hearst Memorial State Beach (3.5 miles)
The southern boundary of the newly expanded San Simeon State Park is about five miles north of Cambria, at the end of Lone Palm Drive just north of San Simeon Creek Road. This part of the state park is known as the Junge Ranch, after a family ranch that was eventually taken over by Hearst. You pass through a newly installed pedestrian entrance and follow a primitive trail that skirts a private residence and leads to the rocky shore. As you take in the views, the tang of salt air and seaweed fills your nostrils.

The trail turns north and meanders atop coastal bluffs, with pocket beaches below, for about three-quarters of a mile to the community of San Simeon Acres. The highway is only about a quarter of a mile away, but you’re separated from it by low hills covered with grass and wild radish, and soon you feel surrounded by nature. “The big appeal is the sense of isolation, yet you are right next to the highway,” said Tamoria.

This bluff trail is an excellent place from which to observe wildlife. Seabirds--Brandt’s cormorants, mostly--roost on the many offshore rocks, where harbor seals also rest, eyeing you warily as you approach. Toward the northern end of the Junge Ranch, you’ll have to hop over a seasonal creek. Its small pools are habitat for the California red-legged frog, a federally listed threatened species, Barandon said.

This part of the park is visited mostly by fishermen and locals who already know of its existence. Veteran surfers have named the break here Cardiacs because the waves break dangerously close to the rocks.

San Simeon Acres and a parcel of land at Pico Cove are privately owned. Just past the cove, you have to use one of three Caltrans vista points to get back onto parkland, which here consists of a narrow strip of beach that runs two and a half miles north to Hearst Memorial State Beach and Old San Simeon Village.

The three vista points along this stretch invite motorists to pull over and enjoy the sight of waves crashing on rocks. Many tourists pose to have their pictures taken with the southern approaches to Big Sur looming in the background. If you’re sure-footed, you may be able to scramble down to the beach and enjoy some tidepooling. Surf-drenched rocks intermingle with sandy beaches here, giving the shoreline explorer the best of both worlds.

By keeping to the sandy areas, you can examine the profusion of mollusks, crustaceans, and algae clinging to the rocks without damaging them by walking on them. The best areas are those that are protected by a row of seaward rocks and reefs, screening the tide pools from the surf. These pools are often a soup of colorful bits of seaweed. Kelp looks drab when lying exposed on the beach but takes on its true colors when submerged. Iridescent seaweed lives up to its name, giving off flashes of turquoise and blue as it sways in the water.

As you explore, you’ll see purple and striped shore crabs scuttling for shelter in rock crevices. Also keep an eye out for a truly bizarre tidepool denizen, the gumboot chiton (pronounced kite-on), a type of mollusk. Unlike most chitons, which are small--the size of your thumb--gumboots can be a foot long. They tend to nestle in the sand next to rocks, looking like chunks of weathered bricks. They do not cling as tightly to rocks as other chitons do, and are easily dislodged.

This stretch of coastline is also popular with fishermen. Most seek surfperch, but occasionally you may run into polepokers, who fish with broomsticks or bamboo poles, to which they attach a short length of fishing line or wire and a hook baited with squid. The hook is thrust into wave-washed channels between the rocks in hopes that a small rockfish, monkeyface eel, or other shallow-water fish will take the bait.

Tamoria knows that most fishermen want to bring home dinner, but to him the most important reason to visit the coastline here is to enjoy nature.