Day: May 27, 2020

Hearst Castle

I had my RX3 out this Memorial Day weekend.  It’s an iconic motorcycle, and it’s one I’ve ridden on three continents.  I hadn’t ridden the RX3 in a few months, and it felt good to be on it again.  Light, responsive, fully equipped, and five years old, my RX3 can and has gone the distance.

I’m thinking about a motorcycle ride up the Pacific Coast Highway to Hearst Castle, and Hearst Castle is a bucket list destination on a bucket list road.  I’d like to do it on my RX3.  Trust me on this: It doesn’t get much better than the Pacific Coast Highway and Hearst Castle.

The Pacific Coast Highway. Life doesn’t get much better than this, folks.  Any motorcycle ride on the PCH is magnificent, and a stop at Hearst Castle makes it even better.

What’s Hearst Castle all about?  Here’s the Reader’s Digest version: William Randolph Hearst is a dude who had more money than God.  His dad came to California during the Gold Rush and somehow managed not to find any gold, but he went a few hills over and hit it big with silver.  Ever hear of the Comstock Lode?  Well, that was George Hearst back in the 1800s.  Father George was a mining guy, and he sort of fell into the newspaper business when he accepted the San Francisco Examiner as payment for a gambling debt.   While all this was going on, young William Randolph Hearst (George’s son) got himself expelled from Harvard, and somehow after that landed a job on the Examiner (ah, nepotism in action).  And while all that was occurring, George bought 40,000 acres in the Santa Lucia Mountains (on the central California coast) so the family had a place to go camping.

I guess some folks run out of things to do when they’re rich, but not young William.  He decided to he needed a castle.   So he built one.  On the family property (which he inherited in 1919) in San Simeon.  It’s one hell of story, and there’s more to it than I can cover here in the blog, but it will soon be in a major motorcycle magazine (and when that happens, I’ll give you the link here).  In advance of that, though, I’ll share a few Hearst Castle photos with you.

The front door to Casa Grande. Bill Hearst liked big doors.
Art, tapestries, ceilings, and more…all this stuff is the result of Hearst’s agents scouring the castles and churches of Europe, and returning the good stuff to California. It’s good to be the king.
One of two Olympic-sized pools at Hearst Castle. This is the first one Hearst built, but guests complained they could hear the staff working upstairs. Undaunted, Old Bill designated this pool for staff only, and built an even larger one outdoors for his guests. The indoor pool makes for a stunning photo op, I think. The blue tiles are custom crafted. It really is amazing.
Dinner was a big deal when Bill held the Hearst Corporation reins. The word “impressive” just isn’t adequate here.
The view from La Cuesta Encantada (the Enchanted Hill) looking west to the Pacific Ocean.

So there you have it.  But there’s more…lots more.  You have to see Hearst Castle to believe it, and it is a stellar thing to see.  Hearst Castle and the Pacific Coast Highway make for a great motorcycle ride.