Boosters of the proposed 1,600-mile-long California Coastal Trail say it will be an urban-rural-wilderness collage. That kind of engaging mix is already open to hikers in San Luis Obispo County, along Estero Bay just north of Cayucos.
The concept of the California Coastal Trail is to piece together a continuous hiking route along the entire state. The segment near Cayucos escaped development, thanks to the Trust for Public Land, which acquired Cayucos Point and the bluffs along the north shore of Estero Bay. The California Coastal Conservancy, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and private donors funded the 1998 acquisition.
Cayucos has a commercial strip with cafes, a saloon and a drugstore with an old-fashioned soda fountain. South of town lie Morro Strand State Beach and the Guadalupe dunes.
Motorists get a glimpse of Cayucos between billboards for Hearst Castle, but I'd guess few stop to hike the bluffs; I recently hiked along this magnificent coast without seeing another soul.
Birds swooped over the lupine-splashed coastal terrace. Egrets foraged at the mouth of a creek. Red-wing blackbirds zoomed into gullies. Pelicans congregated on rocks. Most amazing were two beach buzzards (turkey vultures) flying over the breakers, two more perched on rocks offshore and another pair that scavenged the carcass of a seal.
The path is mostly flat, except for some dipping in and out of ravines. The sight of Morro Rock looming in the misty distance will make the hike memorable.
Directions to the trail head: From California Highway 1 six miles north of Morro Bay (or 20 miles north of San Luis Obispo), exit on Cayucos Drive and go to its end near Cayucos Pier.
You also can start at the north end of the trail. Continue north on California 1 about three miles past Cayucos. Park in a turnout on the west side of the highway and walk toward the bluffs, meeting the coastal trail via a path that begins near a state park sign. (The northernmost access to the trail is 0.3 mile up the highway, but parking is scant there.)
The hike: From Cayucos Pier, walk up Ocean Avenue to Lucerne Road. Follow the road until it rejoins Ocean Avenue. Continue until just before it crosses the highway. You'll be about three-quarters of a mile from the pier.
Now the hike begins. Squeeze past a fence and join the unsigned path heading northwest. You'll pass a prominent reef and small, sea-battered rocks offshore.
