The Pacific Coast near San Luis Obispo, CA

Before I came to the San Luis Obispo area, I knew nothing about what there is to see or do. Somewhere in the back of my mind, though, I’d heard of Morro Rock, which sits in the ocean about ten miles away from where we were staying at Camp San Luis Obispo. That was where we headed for another look at the Pacific Coast.

At Morro Bay State Park we received our first view of the bay. At the visitors center there is also the small Museum of Natural History. We admired the views, and this statue, while we waited for it to open up.

Interestingly, the state park was once a country club, opened just a few months before the stock market crash of 1929. The state of California purchased it not too long afterward, and the Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930’s transformed it into the park that it is today.

Down below this point, there is a marina and the Moro Estuary National Preserve. We took another little hike on its boardwalk, but there weren’t too many bird sightings for us on this day.

Back in the truck again, we drove through the town of Morro Bay–

–and out to Morro Rock Beach. Here was a surprise – sea otters! I had never seen so many in their natural habitat.

Meanwhile, the ground squirrels were everywhere, trying to wrest food from the tourists and entertaining us with their Chip-and-Dale-style antics.

The dunes beyond the water were lost in a marine layer that had settled over everything.

And still we wondered…”where’s the rock?”

We hiked out to the end of the beach, where it turns into impassable huge boulders. We studied a park map. And then we realized…it was right next to us! It had been shrouded in the dense fog all morning.

Morro Rock is a volcanic plug, which means that it was created from magma inside a vent on an active volcano 23 million years ago. The rock was quarried from the late 1800’s until as late as 1969, when it was declared a California Historical Landmark. Today, even just climbing on it is not allowed.

We received a better look at the whole rock the next day as we were driving up the coast. On this day there was no marine layer.

We had lunch at a restaurant on the dock from where I’d taken the picture of the town of Morro Bay. Our server said that on days when the marine layer is heavy, the main question that he gets is “Where’s the rock?”

Morro Bay lies to the west of San Luis Obispo. Just south of the town is Montana de Oro State Park, and there the coastline takes a turn eastward. The other two beaches we visited here lay to the south of us.

Our stay happened to coincide with Mother’s Day. When we are not far from the ocean, this Mother wants to eat seafood. Even though I’d had excellent clam chowder and grilled fish at Morro Bay, another chance for seafood was not an opportunity to pass up.

Mersea Restaurant sits at the end of a long pier on Avila Beach. As we walked down the pier, I was delighted to see seals in the water.

The seals were swimming below us as I had my excellent lunch of fish tacos. This picture didn’t quite capture my whole lunch, but you can see I that I would have shared my jalapeno with anyone who wanted it. This made a perfect, although a little chilly, setting for a Mother’s Day meal.

From the pier, we could see Avila Beach has a small sandy beach. We also admired an RV park going up the hill, and another one alongside the water. But otherwise, it seemed more like a place for the locals. Certainly fine by us.

Pismo Beach is just down the road from Avila Beach and seems to be the greater attraction for families and tourists. On this Mother’s Day, parents huddled on lawn chairs and under blankets and canopies while the children chased the waves. It was a happening place.

As we walked on the sandy beach, there were many small blue jellyfish that had washed up, as well as several purple sand dollars. I have learned that the purple ones are still alive, so when I can I throw them back into the water.

There’s a boardwalk at Pismo Beach, as well as hotels, restaurants and shops.

You wouldn’t know it, but away from the beach it was a clear sunny day. You can see the blue sky behind the hills in the picture above. On this day, the marine layer later crept in almost all the way in to where we were staying.

San Luis Obispo is a college town. Cal Poly (officially: California Polytechnic State University) is here, and so is Cuesta College. As we drove to the pretty tree-lined downtown area, students were everywhere walking or riding bikes with backpacks and iced coffees in hand. The streets close every Thursday night for the Downtown SLO Farmers Market. The students queued up for all the places that were serving food, met and chatted in groups, and shopped at the crafter’s tents.

At the market, we realized that in the nearby Central Valley, strawberries were in season. There were tables heaped with them. We bought some at the market and they were a sweet, delectable opposite of the strawberries that you buy in the grocery store.

Our time here was short, and I would have loved to explore more of the town and what there may have been to see away from the beaches. Certainly, with more time, I would have gone to Paso Robles and done some wine tasting. But we had one more place to see, which in actuality was the whole reason why we were here at all.

Next time–we visit a castle