Morro Bay, CA

We definitely wanted to drive south on the Pacific Coast Highway, but the road in Oregon and Northern California was too narrow and winding for us novices. Instead we headed for Morro Bay, which only required a little hill climbing to get over the San Andreas Mountains. We took mostly local roads from Allensworth park, and found a site at the state park. The campsites were pretty close to each other, but tall trees and bushes between each site gave lots of shade and privacy. It was still late March, and not camping “season” yet, so there weren’t a lot of people around anyway. We drove into town, which was just five minutes away, and found an internet café to check the email. Morro Bay is known for a large rock in the bay, it’s about 100 feet tall. We couldn’t see it from town due to afternoon fog, so we drove out to it and watched the surfers (in full wetsuits) catch waves in the shorebreak and fog. It was so quiet and peaceful in the park that we stayed for two nights, just relaxing and sightseeing.
On the second day of our stay, we drove north to take the tour of the Hearst Castle at San Simeon. It is actually a state historic site, and the grounds and tour are part of the state park system. The presentation is very slick, with a visitor center near the highway on the coast, and a ten minute bus ride up the hill to the actual mansion. There are actually three walking tours, each priced to match the length and scope of the tour. We took the basic tour, which included a film by National Geographic about Randolph Hearst, and a walk through the castle with a very well-informed guide. It is an amazing display of wealth, this “castle”, and the film showed that whatever Hearst wanted, he got.
In the afternoon we drove south to the next town, San Luis Obisbo, county seat and site of Cal Poly. In Morro Bay we had no signal on the cell phone, and wanted to call Makana to let her know we were okay. We found a beer place downtown to watch some basketball and try the spicy chicken wings. San Luis is a college town, but it had a real small town California feel to it, despite the Victoria’s Secret and Kinko’s in the restored part of old downtown.
The California state parks had done us well, in location, scenery and price. The most expensive park we had stayed in had been at Morro Bay, at eighteen dollars for the day.