San Simeon Pier, California Coast

Heading south along the California coast towards Morro Bay, Mike and I stopped in San Simeon to check out the view from the pier and get a glimpse of Hearst Castle. It had already been a long day by this point, and sadly we missed our window to take the tour up to the former home of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst (the inspiration behind Charles Foster Kane in Orson Welles' masterpiece Citizen Kane).  

Even from below, the scale of Hearst Castle is pretty incredible. The surrounding hills begin to soften from the more extreme coastline in Big Sur, but San Simeon is no less picturesque. About halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles along the Pacific Coast Highway, San Simeon is where the transition between northern and southern California becomes clearer.