William Randolph Hearst’s cinematic castle straddles a craggy crest, shimmering in the sun or floating above the fog. Begun in 1919 and never completed, it is as enigmatic as him. A magnet for Hollywood headliners during the 1920s and 1930s, today about 750,000 visitors are attracted annually to the opulent extravagance of the extraordinary estate. They marvel at the ornately decorated and furnished 115-room mansion and the three grand guest cottages reigning over a crown jewel coastline. Poet George Bernard Shaw quipped, “It was the place God would have built—if he had the money.” 
Hearst Castle is located on Highway 1 along the central coast of California, halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles, about a four-hour drive in either direction. Before the road’s completion in 1937, it was an arduous adventure. …