After waking up on a parking spot somewhere in Santa Barbara, we took a 30-second walk to the Santa Barbara Roasting Company. A nice coffee bar where we ordered some coffee and pastries, we got ourselves a seat and enjoyed the breakfast.
Today we will keep continuing on Highway 1 up north and have planned a couple of stops.
Pismo Beach
The first stop is Pismo Beach. We walked the 400m (quarter mile) pier and walked the beach. On the pier there was a hawk that was used to see people because you could get real close to him.
In the past, Pismo beach was popular by fisherman that collected Clams. Now it is illegal to collect them when the clams are little.
Bubblegum Alley
In the center of San Luis Obispo you can find “Bubblegum Alley”. This is a 70-foot-long alley with the walls cover with the remaining of bubblegum. When we walked towards the alley, you could already smell the bubblegum.
Morro Bay
A nice Town with a small craft and recreational harbor. In front of the town at the entrance of the harbor is Morro Rock. A 576-foot-high rock.
This is where we would like to make a nice picture with a view to let you meet “Nessy” our campervan. We had no luck with the view, because of the dense fog just before morro rock.
Elephant Seal vista point
Next stop is “Elephant Seal vista point” just before you enter San Simeon. Here you can view hundreds of elephant seals lying on the beach, sun bathing and sometimes going out to see for a swim.
Be prepared..the smell can be horrible!
Pacific Valley Bluff Trail
A very short,0,7 Miles out & back, but scenic coastal trail. We parked our campervan on the parking of the Pacific Valley Fire station across Highway 1 and walked the trail towards the Pacific overlook.
McWay Falls
One of the falls we really wanted to see is McWay Falls. This is a fall that is 80-foot tall that flows from the mountains directly into the Pacific Ocean. The beach is inaccessible by land. You will only be able to reach it by boat.
Bixby bridge
The last stop for today will be at Bixby bridge. The open-span reinforced concrete arch bridge, with a span of 98 meters, remains one of the tallest concrete bridges in the world with one continuous span.
At 8:30 pm we found a Safeway in Carmel by the Sea and asked if we could stay on their parking for the night. We were very happy to hear that this was no problem, because we were pretty tired of this long day with a lot of stops.