May 25, Carmel to Fort Hunter Liggett

Harlan and I have wanted to ride Nacimiento-Fergusson Rd ever since we discovered it by car in the 1980s. This dramatic climb switchbacks up from highway 1, cutting inland through the south end of the Ventana Wilderness. We finally pulled together a little two-day tour at the start of this past Memorial Day, from Carmel south through Big Sur, overnight at Fort Hunter Liggett, and back north on a route that features a beautiful, long, remote stretch of dirt.

Here's a link to an animation of our route: Relive

We started under classic coastal overcast in Carmel, but the views were iconic, the water every shade of blue, and the traffic less bad that we'd feared for the holiday weekend.

After about 50 miles of up and down along the coast, just south of Lucia, we made the turn onto Nacimiento-Fergusson Rd.

The climb starts a couple hundred feet above sea level and gets to 2,800 feet in about six miles, steepest at the beginning but pretty serious the whole way. Here there was more traffic than we expected, perhaps because there are campgrounds just beyond the top, but the views were fantastic, rising that fast from the Pacific, and the wildflowers along the edge of the road were so diverse and abundant that there was plenty to look at along the way.

Our destination was basically right next door to the Mission San Antonio listed on the sign--20 miles of fast, sunny descent through forest and then oak woodland into vast holdings of Fort Hunter Liggett.

Fort Hunter Liggett is some 167,000 acres used mainly for training exercises, mainly, we were told, for reservists. It was very quiet and we saw no tanks rumbling through the fields.

The fort incorporates a huge amount of land that belong to William Randolph Hearst in the first decades of the 20th century--his Castle is about 30 miles away. He sold the land to the Army in 1940 but within the fenced, secure area of the fort is his lodge for ranch staff and guests, designed by Julia Morgan and built in 1930. The lodge now serves as the Hacienda, a hotel under civilian management. (If you're reading this with a notion of going there, note that their web page doesn't work for reservations, just call them.)

We had a little taste of Catch-22 trying to get to the Hacienda: the main entry gate was clearly marked with a big flashing sign and arrows, but it was just as clearly closed and barricaded. The next obvious gate was just as closed off. We were very close to the Mission San Antonio de Padua and lucked into finding staff there who directed us a few miles back around to a new entry gate, where we were told to head back to the visitor's center, which we'd passed twice already and ignored, because it looked either under construction or abandoned--not occupied anyway. There we were fingerprinted, photographed, and asked for our social security numbers, along with our hotel reservations and IDs, then sent back around just a few more miles to the main gate again. (If you're going, note that in October '18 driver's licenses will no longer be valid for ID; you'll need a passport or Trusted Traveler ID or the like.)

The Hacienda sits at the top of a little rise, just enough to take the last bit out of your legs.

It's an interesting mix of historic structure and utter functionality. It's evocative of its time and beautifully built, and has been preserved to some degree, but it's also a working building that has been adjusted maybe a bit roughly to meet needs and serve demands. The air conditioners in the windows of the southwest wall make sense in this hot, dry setting, though they don't quite fit the ambiance I imagine Hearst and Morgan had in mind. And yet, Hearst used the place only ten years, almost 80 years ago; maybe it's silly to treat it too preciously.

We had a little room with a shared bath down the arcade, and since almost no one else seemed to be around--we didn't see any other guests--this worked out just fine. We peered through windows of some really nice rooms but management didn't have the least interest in taking our money for an upgrade.

We were really looking forward to pizza and beer at Liggett Lanes, the base's little bowling alley and the only option we knew of for food. I'd called ahead to make sure it would be open for the holiday weekend, but we found it closed. Lo and behold down the way was a well hidden Subway, absolutely empty and the manager and staff just hanging out, but the full array of menu, ingredients, chips, and cookies on display. I've never considered Subway for a meal but this time the sandwiches were perfect and we each had two.

The Hacienda has a bar in what must have been the banquet hall, very 1930s, that turned out to be open, so we did get our beer and had a chat with the base's public works manager.

Taps played over the PA at 10pm, and I'd like to say that silence then fell over the land, but it was already that quiet.

For pictures from our return trip go to Day 2, May 26