Distance: ~7 miles

Difficulty: easy

About four months after I moved here, I was wanting to hike deeper into the Sierra. I didn’t really have many friends at that point who were willing to go on all day excursions, so I found the local hiking Meetup group. I went on a hike with them, met a great group of people, and ended up chatting much of the day with Carmen. She had done the big hikes on my list – Half Dome and Mt. Whitney. She’s such an inspiration!

Peaceful walk along the coast.

We exchanged numbers, and planned to keep in touch and hike. Two months later, we were heading to the Central Coast to Montana de Oro State Park.

We met up before sunrise and headed to the coast. We may or may not have had trouble finding the trailhead. Just drive to the end of Pecho Valley Dr, park, and sign in at the booth. Check the PG&E website before you go for registration information.
If you walk straight toward the water, there’s a little beach down to your right. You can sit and chill, listening to the waves.

The rest of the hike is self explanatory. The hills are gentle, you can stroll along the cliffs and be in awe of the powerful ocean waves crashing against the coast.

We hiked about 3.5 miles out. I think the trail is primarily on PG&E land, which explains the registration. At our turn around point, there was a bench overlooking the ocean, serving as our lunch spot.
As for wildlife, supposedly there are bobcats, coyotes, badgers, and deer. We didn’t see any, but it was also a chilly and windy December day. I’d be hiding if I were them, too.

So beautiful.

Head back the way you came. We stopped at a coffee shop in downtown San Luis Obispo on the way back to Fresno. We sat on the patio and were pleasantly surprised by an excellent street performer playing some great tunes on his guitar!