Guest Video. We will be featuring guest video on this site on a regular basis. Send us your links deci@crystalinecove.net. We also love to feature good pics, so send them along! This video takes you along on a dreamy camping trip to Big Sur, with shades of the 1960s. Very pleasant.
San Simeon is located at the southern point of the Big Sur Coastline in Central California. We enjoy some of the most spectacular scenery in the world. Sheer cliffs plunge to rocky beaches; pelicans and California Condors soar through our skies. Whales, dolphins and sea otters frolic in our seas. Wild and pristine, this is some of the most sensitive and protected land in California. Photo Gallery.
This is Your Central Coast. Crystaline Cove is a place for all residents and visitors who love the beautiful Central Coast. This is your website! Get Involved! Pictures are always welcome, as well as articles, poetry, and information. Send to Deci at deci@crystalinecove.net.
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New Art Pages. We are looking for artists and galleries to feature in our new Arts Section. Features and listings are free. Contact deci@crystalinecove.net. We are presently featuring painter Steven Mills.
Tour Hearst Castle for free in June Free tours of Hearst Castle will be offered June 2 to mark the 50th anniversary of the opening of the San Simeon estate of media magnate William Randolph Hearst to the public. Work on the Castle went on from 1919 until an ailing Hearst left for the last time in 1947. He died in 1951. The California Department of Parks and Recreation charged $1 for children and $2 for adults when Hearst San Simeon State Historical Monument tours began June 2, 1958. The equivalent tour now costs $10 for children and $20 for adults. Friends of Hearst Castle has announced a series of special events during the Castle’s golden anniversary year, including a concert, fashion show, lectures, a reception and dinner.
Murder Victim Identified in 1993 Big Sur Case Fifteen years after a pair of mushroom foragers found her skeletonized remains off a road in Big Sur, and four years after the Monterey County Sheriff ’s Office tried to get her DNA identified, authorities have learned the name of a woman who died of gunshot wounds in 1993. Bakersfield resident Frances Pauline Elwell, born in September 1965, had been dead for at least a few months, and possibly as long as a year, when two men hunting for mushrooms in Los Padres National Forest off Nacimiento-Fergusson Road about three miles east of Highway 1 reported finding her remains. The coroner’s office kept her remains and in 2004 submitted a DNA sample to the California Department of Justice. On March 31, investigators finally learned the name of their murder victim. Elwell, it turned out, had served time in prison, and the state lab matched the DNA samples taken during her sentence and when her body was found. Nobody had reported her missing. Working with Bakersfield Police Department and the sheriff ’s office in Kern County, deputies located and notified her family, who still live in Bakersfield. Now that investigators know her name, they can delve into her past in hopes of determining who shot her.
New California Condor Chick We are proud to announce the arrival of a new wild condor chick to the family. On a recent expedition into Big Sur, Joe Burnett (Senior Wildlife Biologist) discovered a one day old condor chick in a cliffside nest. To his astonishment, the parents were no where to be found. Joe luckily had a video camera with him and began taking video of the new born chick. After only a few moments capturing some of the chick's first sounds, Joe is startled by the prompt arrival of the well known protective father. In the video you can see Joe pan out attempting to locate the big male. Only at the very end of the video if you look closely inside the nest do you see the male responding to the calls of Big Sur's newest California condor.
Wildflowers. The wildflowers are incredible all along Highway 1 right now. Charlie took this shot on Sunday, April 27, just north of Piedras Blancas on Highway 1. This is the best bloom we have seen in years. Some of the hills are pure patches of color - purple lupine, yellow mustard, and the bright clear orange of California poppy. Best show around, don't miss it!
Reserve opens its doors THE LANDELS-HILL Big Creek Reserve presents its annual open house Saturday, May 10, offering the public a glimpse of the 3,800- acre Big Sur biological field station. The reserve — which is used primarily by researchers and students — will be open to the public from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Scientists working at Big Creek will be available to talk about their research. Driving and hiking tours will also be available, so bring sturdy shoes, water and snacks. Located about 45 miles south of Carmel, the Big Creek watershed contains the tributaries of Big Creek and Devil’s Canyon. The reserve is home to 42 percent of all native plants in California, according to reserve director Mark Readdie. For more information, call (831) 667-2543.
Eric Taylor Singer-songwriter Eric Taylor hit the pavement soon after reading Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road.” But unlike most of his fellow road ramblers, Taylor is still rambling, and his four-decade odyssey as a traveling musician will take him on a scenic detour to the setting of one of Kerouac’s most famous books (“Big Sur”) Sunday, May 11, when he plays at the Henry Miller Library. Taylor is one of the most influential songwriters ever to come out of Texas. Over the years, as his reputation and song catalogue have grown, he has had a profound effect on the evolution and development of such well-known Texas artists as Nanci Griffith, Lyle Lovett, Robert Earl Keen, and others. The concert starts at 3 p.m. Tickets are $15. For more information, call (831) 667-2574 or visit www.henrymiller.org.
Shock at the rookery Wildlife investigators are searching for suspects in the shooting deaths last weekend of three elephant seals near San Simeon, an attack that may be connected to the shooting of six sea lions in Oregon along the Columbia River. The violence is said to be a first for the rookery. Elephant seals are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act and disturbing one of the seals is a federal offense. The bodies of the slain seals, between 2 and 5 years old, have been buried in the sand on the beach, near the turnoff to Hearst Castle and not far from where they were discovered dead.
A reward of up to $5,000 is being offered by wildlife officials for information leading to the arrest of the shooter or shooters. Anyone with information on the shooting should call: • NOAA Special Agent Roy Torres at 831-647-2127 • The hotline for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Law Enforcement at 800-853-1964 • State Parks at 805-927-2068 • Cal-Tip at 888-334-2258