Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Day Trip, Hwy 1 - Harmony to W.R. Hearst State Beach

I wrote previously about our day trip North on Hwy 1 and our stop at the tiny hamlet of Harmony.  I'll post part 2 of that road trip now.  After we'd seen all there was to see in Harmony, (LOL) we continued north for about 12 more miles to our picnic spot.  We'd chosen the William Randolph Hearst State Beach for it's scenic beauty. 

The entrance to the state beach is directly across the highway from the entry gate to Hearst Castle.  We have prior experience at this state beach and we knew they had nice restrooms here.  Very important.  It also has 24 designated picnic sites and parking for 150 cars.  The day we were there I'd say maybe 25 cars were in the parking lot.  We found a picnic table near the edge of the bluff, which afforded us the best view of the rocky coastline.  There is a chainlink fence along the bluff for protection.
The picnic areas have stone picnic tables and some have BBQ grills for your use.  We had just packed sandwiches in our cooler, plus a treat for Annie.  She loves a good picnic.
There is a pier at this beach (no dogs allowed) and you can fish there without needing a license.  It looked like access to the pier would be no problem for folks with walkers or motorized scooter-mobiles. 
On the other side of the pier from the picnic grounds was a beach.  You can swim here or do some beachcombing.  You can also rent a kayak or a boogie board if you choose.  There is a short hiking trail from the beach area, but we couldn't do that.  Annie hasn't been having good days and she has no stamina for such things.
We enjoyed our lunch and the beautiful views.  The air was warm but breezy.  It was a great time to just sit and think about this wonderful place to be.  Words cannot express the complete joy of the RV lifestyle for us.  Before we left to continue on our way North, I took a photo of the magnificent Hearst Castle, high up on the hill.  It's a nice place to visit and see how the other half lives.  We've been there and seen it already.  Time to move on for more fun. 


Until next time.....so long for now!

3 comments:

Rick said...

Looking at your great pictures of W.R. Hearst Park brought back some great memories of our visit there just over a month ago. Glad to see you had such a wonderful day!

KarenInTheWoods said...

Wow.. what a lovely park such great views! Looks like a great day to be out and about.

Karen and Steve
(Blog) http://kareninthewoods-kareninthewoods.blogspot.com/

Karen and Al said...

That looks like some castle!