Green anemones with black tegulas (Tegula funebralis) SLO

Hearst San Simeon State Park is a

state park State parks are parks or other protected areas managed at the sub-national level within those nations which use "state" as a political subdivision. State parks are typically established by a state to preserve a location on account of its natural ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, United States, preserving rocky coast and rare habitats. It is located between

Cambria Cambria is a name for Wales, being the Latinised form of the Welsh name for the country, . The term was not in use during the Roman period (when Wales had not come into existence as a distinct entity). It emerged later, in the medieval period, a ...

and

San Simeon San Simeon (Spanish: ''San Simeón'', meaning "St. Simon") is a village and Census-designated place on the Pacific coast of San Luis Obispo County, California, United States. Its position along State Route 1 is about halfway between Los Angeles ...

. The park was first established in 1932. The park includes the Santa Rosa Creek Natural Preserve, the San Simeon Natural Preserve and the Pa-nu Cultural Preserve, which were established in 1990. A trail runs through parts of the San Simeon Natural Preserve and the Washburn Campground. The trail includes scenic overlooks, rest-stop benches and interpretive panels with information on wildlife and habitat. A portion of the trail along the seasonal wetland is wheelchair accessible. Santa Rosa Creek Preserve is an area that includes valuable riparian forests and coastal

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...

s, which provide habitat for endangered

tidewater goby ''Eucyclogobius newberryi'', the Northern tidewater goby, is a species of goby native to lagoons of streams, marshes, and creeks along the coast of California, United States. The Northern tidewater goby is one of six native goby species to Califo ...

. San Simeon Natural Preserve consists of vast wetlands,

riparian zone A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. Riparian is also the proper nomenclature for one of the terrestrial biomes of the Earth. Plant habitats and communities along the river margins and banks ar ...

s, and several undisturbed native plant communities, including unique

mima mound Mima mounds are low, flattened, circular to oval, domelike, natural mounds that are composed of loose, unstratified, often gravelly sediment that is an overthickened Soil horizon#A horizon, A horizon. These mounds range in diameter from 3 to mo ...

topography. The Preserve is also the wintering site for

monarch butterfly The monarch butterfly or simply monarch (''Danaus plexippus'') is a milkweed butterfly (subfamily Danainae) in the family Nymphalidae. Other common names, depending on region, include milkweed, common tiger, wanderer, and black-veined brown. It ...

populations. In 2005 an additional 1,100 acres (445 ha) of coastal lands were added to the state park following an easement agreement and property exchange with the neighboring

Hearst Ranch Hearst may refer to: Places * Hearst, former name of Hacienda, California, United States * Hearst, Ontario, town in Northern Ontario, Canada * Hearst, California, an unincorporated community in Mendocino County, United States * Hearst Island, an i ...

Prehistory

The Pa-nu Cultural Preserve contains the most significant archeological site within Hearst San Simeon State Park. The site has been dated to 5850 years before the present, and it contains significant evidence documenting prehistoric technology, subsistence practices and social organization over the course of several centuries. Prehistorically this entire general area of the central coast was inhabited by the

Chumash Chumash may refer to: *Chumash (Judaism), a Hebrew word for the Pentateuch, used in Judaism *Chumash people, a Native American people of southern California *Chumashan languages, indigenous languages of California See also * Chumash traditional ...

people, who settled the coastal San Luis Obispo area approximately 10,000 to 11,000

BCE Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the or ...

, including a large village to the south at

Morro Creek Morro Creek is a coastal stream in San Luis Obispo County, in the central region of the U.S. state of California. The watercourse flows from the Santa Lucia Mountains to discharge into the Pacific Ocean, at its mouth on Estero Bay, near the city o ...

Nearby protected areas

Hearst San Simeon State Historical Monument contains

Hearst Castle Hearst Castle, known formally as La Cuesta Encantada (Spanish for "The Enchanted Hill"), is a historic estate in San Simeon, located on the Central Coast of California. Conceived by William Randolph Hearst, the publishing tycoon, and his archit ...

Cambria State Marine Conservation Area Cambria State Marine Conservation Area (SMCA) is a marine protected area located off the coast of the city of Cambria, California on California’s central coast in San Luis Obispo County, California. The marine protected area covers . Within the ...

and

White Rock (Cambria) State Marine Conservation Area White Rock (Cambria) State Marine Conservation Area (SMCA) is a marine protected area located off the coast of the city of Cambria, California on California’s central coast. The marine protected area covers . Within the SMCA the take of all li ...

are marine protected areas offshore from San Simeon campground. Nearby ocean waters are also a part of the

Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary (MBNMS) is a federally protected marine area offshore of California's Big Sur and central coast in the United States. It is the largest US national marine sanctuary and has a shoreline length of ...

, where visitors can learn more at the Coastal Discovery Center at San Simeon Bay, located at Hearst Beach. A large

elephant seal Elephant seals are very large, oceangoing earless seals in the genus ''Mirounga''. Both species, the northern elephant seal (''M. angustirostris'') and the southern elephant seal (''M. leonina''), were hunted to the brink of extinction for oil ...

rookery is found on many beaches of Hearst San Simeon State Park. Adjacent to the northern stretches of the park are the Piedras Blancas State Marine Reserve, and the

Piedras Blancas Light Station Piedras Blancas Light Station is located at Point Piedras Blancas, about west by northwest of San Simeon, California. It was added to the California Coastal National Monument in 2017. History and management The first-order Fresnel lens at Pie ...

References

External links

Hearst San Simeon State Park
{{authority control 1932 establishments in California Nature reserves in California Parks in San Luis Obispo County, California Protected areas established in 1932 State parks of California