Travel Day

Avila Beach, CA

Today was a travel day from Santa Cruz to near San Luis Obispo. Actually it’s nearer Avila and Pismo Beaches. The trip down was uneventful and only took 3 hours or so. As you can see, I didn’t get a lot further south than when I traveled along Highway 1 last week. I wanted to stay overnight nearer to Hearst Castle so I could visit there and wouldn’t have to drive the Pacific Coast Highway in the dark.

Unfortunately, this is the least desirable KOA I’ve been to. There is some work going on so maybe there are new owners who are trying to fix it up, but the pool and club house are both closed, the pool was supposed to re-open Nov 1 and it’s still closed, opening “maybe Sunday. Well I’m leaving Sunday morning. The campground is small, and the sites are small (although at least they have fences between them). It’s “very convenient to the highway” and just simple things like the picnic tables needing a coat of paint, and very little attempt at landscaping implies a general lack of interest in keeping it up. The washrooms are old and not particularly clean. Anyway, enough griping. I’ve done pretty well otherwise.

After setting up I headed out to Avila Beach to see what it was like. It’s a really small community on a really big beach with not one, not two, but three piers. The freight and fishing one is quite far down the beach, the second one is nearby but is a environmental department pier, not open to the public, and the third is shut down for safety concerns. It got damaged in a storm 2 years ago, and then last spring when the whales were migrating and drawing a lot of tourists to the wharf, they noticed it weaving under the weight of so many people so they immediately shut it down.

The town itself seems upscale, is very cute, clean and has some great restaurants. It was 24 degrees this afternoon when I was looking for lunch and so I sat on a patio overlooking pier number 3 and the beach. Quite delightful.

After hanging out there for a bit I headed south to Pismo Beach. It is a much more established beach with lots more, but older accommodations, etc. They have a pier that I walked out on but for some reason I forgot to take a picture of it. I watched the pelicans fishing and the surfers surfing and then I headed for home before it got too dark to find my way.

Not a really exciting day on the California coast but a pleasant one.