Aliciana and I decided to escape from unpacking our new apartment and enjoy some of the sunshine. We met up with Nick and Jessie, and took a small hike in the Arboretum. It was hard to believe we were still in the middle of a large metropolitan city while we were walking around the park.
Taking in the beautiful sights of the Puget Sound. We hiked to the beach at Discovery Park and took a look at the lighthouse. Then, we hauled ourself back up the hill. It was about a 3 mile hike round trip.
The boys made a good effort but only made it half way up Cowles Mountain. Aliciana would have made it to the summit but she was busy carrying Connor most of the way. So, I was the only one to make it all the way to the top.
The boys and I went for a nice hike over the pedestrian bridge and along the shore of Lake Hodges. The boys took a break along the way to try their hand at grinding acorns.
Besides seeing lizards and birds, we also ran across some mule deers, which walked out of some brush. Unfortunately, they ran back into cover before I could snap a photo.
We filled the time before our flight home by going for a hike in an Illinois forest. Then we visited beautiful Lake Katherine and the creatures at its nature center and gardens.
The world was all laid out before us when we made it to the top of Murray Hill, where we could see all of San Luis Obispo, Edna Valley, and even the Pismo dunes.
The entire 5.3 mile Reservoir Canyon Loop took us about 5 hours to complete, but the view along the ridge was totally worth it.
Aliciana and I went for an afternoon hike in the Black Mountain Open Space. It isn’t the prettiest land to hike in, but there were some nice views.
We got some much needed outdoors time, rare in these times of pandemic. The boys had fun figuring out how to skip rocks into the lake.
There were quite a few animals out: pelicans diving for fish, lizards, rabbits, and birds of all sorts.
Starting at a trailhead in Los Osos, we hiked over massive dunes and then along the beach on the strip of land that separates Morro Bay from the ocean.
My hope was to get to hike back across the dunes to the bay side, and take some photos across the bay of Morro Bay. But all the dunes, besides a small path we took to get to the beach, was closed off because the Snowy Plover just leaves it eggs laying around, and they are endangered.
We started off with the idea of just hiking around the Lemon Grove trail at the base of Cerro San Luis Obispo, also known as Madonna Mountain. But, the hike was going well so we decided to take another trail to the “M”, placed on the mountain by Mission High School.
After we made it up that trail, we were halfway up the mountain, so we decided to challenge ourselves to make it to the top. The view from on top of the peak was amazing.
After stopping off to say hello to the elephant seals, who were mostly out to sea, we went for a hike on a gorgeous San Simeon day.
We spent all afternoon on San Simeon Point, surrounded by the ocean, walking along the cliffs and through the trees. The boys enjoyed exploring the rock formations flowing into the ocean.
We started off our day of hiking at Montaña de Oro, walking along the cliffs. Then we headed further inland, to the Elfin Forest by the back end of the Morro Bay estuary. We had the mini oak tree forest all to ourselves for exploring.
The trail itself wasn’t anything special. The boys had fun collection acorns fallen from the oak trees along the path.
On the way back, a coyote showed up to check out what we were doing. I didn’t have my zoom lens, so I couldn’t get close up pictures of our visitor.
