Hearst Ranch Facts

View of the sourthern end of the Hearst Ranch from San Simeon Pier

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• Located 35 miles north of San Luis Obispo, CA
  <Click Here for Map showing location of Hearst Ranch (240Kb)>
• Covers 128 square miles, or 82,000 acres
• Once spread over 270,000 acres until Fort Hunter Liggett acquired a large portion of the Ranch
• Encompasses 18 miles of coastline
• Is the largest privately owned working cattle ranch on the California Coast
• 2.5 times the size of the City and County of San Francisco
  See Hearst Ranch Comparison Map, (220KBytes)
• 10 times the size the City of San Luis Obispo
• Originally known as Rancho Piedra Blanca, was bought in 1865 by Senator George Hearst
• William Randolph Hearst started construction of Hearst Castle in 1919, designed by Julia Morgan
• Offers outstanding scenic vistas
• More than 19 beaches, including Arroyo Laguna the world renowned windsurfing beach, and the enormous elephant seal rookery.
  
• Is home to a wide variety of wildlife, including:
  
  • Elephant Seals
  • Eagles
  • Hawks
  • Mountain Lions
  • Turkey Vultures
  • Deer
  • Coyotes
  • Rodents
  • Ground squirrels
  • Steelhead Trout
  • Western Pond Turtles
  • Red Legged Frogs
  • California Condors
  • Zebras
  • And many others
    
• Has wide variety of plants and flowers, including:
  

  

  • Santa Lucia Firs
  • Mariposa Lilies
  • California Poppies
  • Hearst Manzanita
  • Hearst Ceanothus
  • Maritime Ceanothus
  • Dwarf Golden Star
  • Dudley's Louswort
  • Monterey Pines
  • Grasslands
  • Chaparral
    
• Connects to Los Padres National Forest
  
• Connects to Hunter Liggett Military Reservation
  
• Contains many watersheds and creeks:
  
  • San Carpoforo Creek
  • Arroyo de la Cruz Creek
  • Arroyo Hondo Creek
  • Arroyo de los Chinos Creek
  • Arroyo del Corral Creek
  • Oak Knoll Creek (Arroyo Laguna Beach)
  • Arroyo del Puerto Creek
  • Little Pico Creek
  • Pico Creek
  • Lake Nacimiento

San Simeon Point viewed from San Simeon Pier

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We urge you to gather information from this web site and other sources and decide for yourself whether preserving this extraordinary piece of California is important. If you decide it is, please join our effort to support this project and preserve the Hearst Ranch. If you have questions we will try to answer them if we can.

To join the effort to preserve the Hearst Ranch
<Click Here>

To ask questions or make comments
<Click Here>