After the Stouts left I had a few days to myself so I did a couple beach walks, headed up North to the Harmony Headlands and decided to torture myself with a climb of Valencia Peak.
Looking North on Morro's 2 mile long beach.
Harmony Headlands is just15 or so minutes north of Morro. It's a former ranch road so nothing challenging but a very beautiful walk to the ocean.
Harmony Headlands from the end of the trail.
The next day I challenged my 75 year old legs with trip up Valencia Peak. It's the tallest peak in the Montana de Oro State Park. 8000 acres and 7 miles of shoreline.
Valencia is 1347 ft. in elevation and since you start at basically sea level, you do them all. A well maintained trail zigzags up the peak for 2.4 or so miles. With expansive views towards town and further south.
The ridge trail heading towards the summit.
Looking down from the summit at the ridge and trail and Spooner's Cove.
A couple of views from the summit. First looking East towards San Luis Obispo and the second to the South.
It was a great hike, there's so much oxygen at sea level, but challenging for me. Just about a 3 hour round trip.
Mary arrived around 1 PM on Friday. After unpacking we headed down to the beach for a walk. She loves the ocean and also has been coming here off and on for years.
Mary getting her toes into the sand.
After the walk we celebrated her arrival with a bottle of French Rose Champagne, Brie and a locally made Rosemary Gouda on the deck.
The following day, Saturday, we headed north to Cayucos first to view a fishing boat the had become stranded on the rocks on the north end of town. The 79-foot commercial fishing boat that ran aground on July 28, 2017. It's propellers had been entangled in some line and when the crew shut the boat down to try and free it, it drifted up on the rocks. The fuel was pumped out but after a 100K estimate to free it and tow it back for repairs, the owner decided to leave it.
We then headed up to Cambria to find a restaurant/bar that Mary had had a glass of wine at years before with a beautiful view of the ocean and said that she thought the place had been bought by Dauo Cellars. We eventually found the place, but it was abandoned now and didn't seem to be being repaired.
After that we went to Harmony (Pop. 18) where there's a tasting room, old post office, glass blowing business, food trucks and wedding venue.
We had some time before the Saturday Morro Farmers Market so we took a wharf side walk to check out the sea otters that reside in the bay and decided to stop at Stax wine bar for a glass.
The next day after a morning walk on the beach we ventured back out to Montana de Oro to find a access point for the spit. Morro Bay has a 4 mile sand spit that runs from the harbor entrance to Montana de Oro where it connects to the mainland. I thought that we had found a quick entry point on a previous visit but hell if I can find it now. We pulled off on a couple of the parking areas along the road and found some access points in case we decide to do a hike there in the coming week.
The sand spit stretching back towards Morro Rock and the Bay.
On Monday we headed out once again to Montana de Oro to hike the Point Buchon trail. It's only open Friday thru Monday from April to October and crosses land that is both private ranch land as well as land belonging to PG&E where the Diablo Canyon Power Plant is.
It's a great walk of 4 miles out with stunning seascapes. Sea stacks, caves, arches and big vistas are around every corner.
On Wednesday we decided to head south to Avila Beach and possibly do a hike there. We ended up on the bay at a nice restaurant called Mersea's on the dock for a beer and some lunch. Avila is really nice. Had a great vibe, not overrun by tourists. Cute little town.
From there we drove thru Shell Beach, Pismo Beach, Grover Beach and Oceano. In Pismo we stumbled upon a park called Dinosaur Caves Park. Evidently in the 40's, a gentleman started building a large concrete dinosaur that was to be the entrance to sea caves, which have since collapsed. The dinosaur was never completed as local citizens thought it was an eye sore.
Grover Beach was okay, neither of us were crazy about Oceano, but it might have been due to the fact that it's the entry point to Pismo State Beach where they allow cars on the beach. Kinda ruined the vibe.
From there I wanted to take a back road to SLO just to check out the area. After a couple wrong turns we ended up on Orcutt Road headed in the right direction. It turned out to be fortuitous as we ended up at a winery that I researched prior to heading to the coast.
The Baileyana, Tangent and True Myth tasting room is located in a small one room former schoolhouse for the children of the farms in the area. We had a very nice and very knowledgeable young woman who gave us a lot of information about the wines and the area since she had grown up in Pismo Beach.
The Baileyana Tasting Room. Highly Recommended.
On Thursday we walked on the beach and then headed over to San Luis Obispo (SLO) for a hike and the evening market.
We decided upon trails in the Irish Hills section of town and had a nice 3 plus mile hike with great views of SLO. We took the Froom Creek Connector to the King to the Mariposa.
Lots of live oaks and grasslands right in the city.
Finally we went to the Thursday Night Market. Very crowded but 4 very long blocks of vendors with fresh fruit, vegetables, baked items and crafts. As we were leaving Mary remembered that we must visit Bubblegum Alley. Holy cow and a bit disgusting.
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