In a residential neighborhood, just south of downtown San Luis Obispo, is the trailhead for South Hills Open Space. We had stopped by this curbside trailhead once before a few months earlier, deciding that the trail didn’t look too appealing at the time. After our brief hike up Black Hill in Morro Bay, we…
Just east of the town of Morro Bay sits Black Hill, one of the Nine Sisters that stretch from Morro Rock in the west to Islay Hill east of San Luis Obispo. We had heard that the hike to the top was scenic but very short – it could be lengthened to about a…
Jane’s Aunt Bev met us for an easy walk along the bluffs north of Cayucos. Chris was hoping to duplicate the hike we did last November but mistook the trailhead and wound up parking about two miles short of where he intended. We ended up walking south from Hwy 1 at San Geronimo Road to the…
Jane was shopping when Chris did Islay Hill alone the previous November, so we did this easy but scenic little hike together on a beautiful January day. The colors of farmland in Edna Valley to the east weren’t quite as vibrant as they had been in the fall, but the air was crystal clear….
A beautiful, cloudless day in Montana de Oro State Park, and our destination was 1,373′ Oats Peak. We hiked up the south side of the Islay Creek canyon to a saddle just east of Valencia Peak, thinking the next hill was Oats Peak. To our surprise, Oats was three small summits and another 3/4 mile away…
While Jane took a rest day and shopped with her Aunt Bev in SLO, Chris did a solo walk up Islay Hill, the easternmost of the Nine (or Seven, depending on your source) Morros that lie in and around San Luis Obispo. The western and southern slopes were sunny and warm, while the shaded…
Hikefest Day 6. Cerro San Luis overlooks downtown SLO, notable for the large “M” prominent on its northeast face that stands for Mission High School just across the 101 freeway. The trail ascends steeply at first up a slope that appears to be more gentle, then tapers into a more gradual climb once the route reaches…
Hikefest Day 5. We got a very late start to the day and didn’t leave Pismo until after 2pm. We wanted something easy since we were more than a little sore and didn’t think we had time for any sort of peak-bound hike, so we headed up Hwy 1 to the Estero Bluffs just…
Hikefest Day 4. We decided to hit the literal high point of the week by hiking Cerro Alto, a summit near the end of West Cuesta Ridge that overlooks Morro Bay. We had read about the outstanding views from the top and how one could see all the way from Big Sur in the…
Hikefest Day 3. The weather having been foggy and cloudy on our first trip here in September, we decided to take another shot at Valencia Peak since it was so sunny and warm. We started from the same trailhead and took the most direct route as before. As we climbed higher, clouds began forming below us, so…