The hook
One of California's largest and least-tamed state parks: eight thousand acres of golden cliffs, sea caves, and blowholes just south of Morro Bay.
01Why it's worth it
Montaña de Oro — "mountain of gold," for the wildflowers that light the hills in spring — is 8,000 acres of coast that the development up and down the rest of the state mostly skipped. The Bluff Trail runs nearly flat along the edge for miles, past sculpted sea caves, blowholes, and pocket beaches set into the base of golden cliffs, with tide pools full of anemones and sea stars at Corallina Cove and otters cracking shellfish out in the kelp. Behind it, Valencia Peak climbs to 1,347 feet and a view back over Morro Rock and the whole bay. Spooner's Cove anchors the day, a beach where a canyon meets the surf. It's the wild counterpart to Morro Bay's harbor town next door, big enough and empty enough to lose the crowds in.
02How to experience it
The park is in Los Osos at the south end of Estero Bay, about three and three-quarter hours south, and it's free. The Bluff Trail is easy with a high payoff for the effort; Valencia Peak is the harder climb if you want the view. Come at low tide for the pools and bring something for the wind. It pairs naturally with Morro Rock just up the coast, the two making a full Central Coast day.