Travel: Montana De Oro State Park and Baywood-Los Osos, California

In December, we took a mini vacation up the California coast and discovered the little town of Los Osos slightly north of SLO. Our main reason for staying here was to explore Montana De Oro State Park and Morro Bay. To my surprise, it offered so much more than I was expecting, but isn’t that always the case with surprises? I had a rejuvenating few days in the area and my only regret was leaving so soon. This is hardly a travel guide, but rather, a reminiscence of the quiet neighborhood in which I felt I belonged.

Related Posts:

• Travel: A Weekend in Boulder, Colorado
• Travel: City Guide to Seattle, Washington
• Travel: The Hooker Valley Track, New Zealand

We stayed at an AirBNB, which is our preferred way of traveling. If you’ve never tried it before, I invite you to try it and if you use this referral link, you can get up to $65 off your first booking. The place was at the end of a dirt road in the middle of farm land. As we drove up to it, a giant black dog slowly lumbered towards our car to greet us welcome. The room was above a garage and had a tiny electric fireplace which kept us warm during the cold nights. In the morning, we could see the sun rise over the hills on their deck, and made our coffee in the mini kitchen while watching condors land on the poles of electric lines. If I had to get away from city life, this would be where you would find me.

The pace of the tiny town is slow and kind. Restaurants opened late, and shops closed early. People liked to sit and talk and the most poppin’ place was a humble diner with plastic tables and chairs serving large biscuits with gravy and greasy eggs. Meanwhile, the best croissants we have ever had (and that’s saying a lot) came from Pagnol Bakery who doesn’t even have a website and is located on a residential street, wherein a home owner turned the downstairs floor into a bakery storefront. There was also a Japanese ramen place called Kuma situated in the middle of an overgrown courtyard, extremely empty which would signal to me of their quality but the ramen was delicious and you can get sake for $1.

Not far from the town is Montana de Oro State Park. We traversed both Valencia Peak and walked along the Bluff Trail. We collected rocks on Spooner’s Cove when the sun was setting, and walked the harbor near Morro Bay. A twenty minute drive away is a breeding ground for elephant seals and if you’ve never seen them before they are a site to behold. And just to the south east lies SLO, where you can hike multiple morros to view the central coastline from above. I’ve been wanting, for a very long time, to find a place like this. It reminded me of New Zealand and even though we can’t travel around the world during this time, I would gladly drive up the coast to revisit this place over and over again.

If you enjoyed this post, subscribe to my newsletter to receive all things travel! Notifications of newly published travel guides, itineraries and tips will be delivered directly to your inbox.