Morro Bay Camping Trip

We are just back from a 3-night getaway to the Central Coast. We camped at Morro Bay State Park. The campground is ok. It is on the edge of town and attracts many people. It is in need of a little spruce up, but our site was awesome. We had a spot with neighbors only on one side and a good view. We choose to have a “camping lite” experience. This means we kept it simple by taking only a small amount of food for breakfast and picnic lunches and bought snacks and dinners out. We also set our campsite up minimally – only our fire pit and two chairs along side the tent trailer. We also had electric and water hookups. We could easily charge our tech and use our sound machine to block evening noise and we had no worries about lights or water. Next time we can bring our espresso machine.

On day one we walked all over Morro Bay, ate fish and chips and roamed the farmer’s market. We walked down to the Bay to see the sunset and then polished off a mini carrot cake.

Day two started with a morning hike up Black Hill. This trail is an out and and back with about 600 feet elevation gain. We then drove north to San Simeon where we had a picnic lunch and explored the shops and winery and a took a beautiful walk/hike through Fiscalini Ranch Preserve. Before leaving town we bought olallieberry jam and sandwiches to-go for dinner at Linn’s in Cambria.

On the way back to Morro Bay we did a walk around, as far as is possible, Morro Rock. We then headed back to camp, showered (not horrible – water was hot and showers were mostly clean) and then dined on our sandwiches while catching up on our YouTube videos.

Day 3 started with breakfast in the trailer and then a hike. Both the trails we hiked were beautiful, good workouts but not too hard, and sparsely populated. We both agreed the second hike was one of our top favorites of all time. It was cool, slightly misty and green with lots of wildflowers and views. The trail had ups and downs but nothing grueling and we saw no people. We did hike through high grass and fairly deep sand at times. Those were the minor cons.

We recovered from this hike with a stop at Starbucks and, for Chris, a breakfast burrito. We then wandered through the Elfin Forest Recreational Reserve. This place, with its never-ending wooden boardwalks and views for miles, is a hidden gem. It is also home to pgymy oak trees. They range from 4 to 10 feet tall and are old.

We spent some afternoon time back at the camp and then headed back to our favorite coastal town, Cambria. We walked the length of the boardwalk and then had burgers and a giant basket of fries at The Main Street Grill. The fries were top-notch; we ate maybe a fourth of them.