I am going to admit right away that during our 2 night stay in San Luis Obispo we didn’t explore the city at all. Well…technically we did a bit of exploring when we visited Trader Joe’s. Which in my opinion is the best part of all cities anyway. We arrived late in the day on Saturday and it had been raining on and off all day so after stocking up at TJs we headed back home for the night. Isn’t it funny how this time of year four o’clock is considered late in the day? Maybe it’s just me, but I mean come on…it gets dark at five these days.
Our solitary spot with a view
We found another nice county park to camp at just outside of town. El Chorro Regional Park offers full hook-ups and dry camping. Both the full-hook up loops were a third to half full but the dry camping loop was completely empty. Since we’re not afraid of a little primitive camping we picked a nice large pull thru site in the middle of the dry camping loop and set up camp. The views of the surrounding mountains were fantastic and the privacy refreshing. Our only complaint was the tremendous amount of mud everywhere. Technically the sites were gravel- but it was mostly mud mixed with a little gravel. This meant that every time we came in from outside Phineas had to have his paws wiped off. If there’s anything this dog is more freaked out by then hoses, hardwood floors, stairs and cats, it’s having his feet touched (yes he has a few phobias). He fought it every time, but we persisted and the result was an only slightly muddy airstream floor.
Muddy foot dog
On Sunday afternoon the rain stopped and the sky cleared so we went out for a hike. Lately we’ve been on lots of flat beach walks and we were excited to get some exercise with a little elevation change. The area between San Luis Obispo and Morro Bay is graced by a chain of nine volcanic peaks named the Nine Sisters. With a height of 1,546 feet the tallest of the mountains is Bishop’s Peak. The not too strenuous 4 mile round trip hike combined with sweeping views of the surrounding area makes this a poplur trek among locals and visitors alike. The hike begins in a shaded forest of mature oaks and pleasant smelling California Bay Laurel before opening up to a rocky boulder filled trail of switchbacks.
Mossy Oaks and spicy scented Bay Laurels
Tim on the trail with a view of Cerro San Luis Mtn.
The open nature of the trail allowed for views all the way to the top. Of course the best view was from the summit.
View of San Luis Obispo and the neighboring peak- Cerros San Luis
There trail ends with a set of benches for admiring the view, but if you really want to reach the top you need to scramble up some boulders to the summit. Phin is not big on climbing bare rocks (another phobia) so while he and I admired the view from one of the benches, Tim climbed the boulders to the top.
Tim (with the red shirt) and some other dude at the summit
He said the view was pretty amazing and he even spotted the airstream at the campground far in the distance! It’s hard to tell from this picture but when I zoomed way in we could definitely see that it was indeed the airstream. The picture was really blurry though so you only get to see the far away version.
A shiny metal house is easy to spot even from a mountain top
So even though we didn’t actually explore the town, we did get a great view of it from the top of a mountain. It’s too bad that we already planned to leave this morning because yesterday I learned from Facebook that some fellow RV dwellers who we would have liked to meet are in the area. I also got some great tips on local attractions and restaurants from some Instagram friends. I guess next time if I am going to post a picture of where we are on social media, I should do it when we arrive and not when we’re about to leave. Lesson learned.
