Day 943: Montana de Oro State Park - Sandspit - Bloody Nose - American Canyon - Los Osos - Islas Creek Campground - Baywood Park Pier - Sweet Springs Nature Preserve

Day #943 * Hike #1203 * New Track #935
Montana de Oro State Park - Los Osos, CA
Sandspit - Bloody Nose - American Canyon
Islas Creek Campground
Sunday June 16, 2013
My Tripometer: 1.25 Hours * 1.25 Miles * +50 Feet

Directions
Just south of San Luis Obispo, exit the 101 Freeway at Los Osos Valley Road.  Head west towards Morrow Bay / Los Osos for several miles.  Continue following the road as it becomes Pecho Valley Road.  This will take you to the south along the coast and then up into Montana de Oro State Park.  Be advised, the park goes way back into nomans land and there is no southern exit...

 

 American Canyon Trailhead

Look for the Sandspit sign off to the right to access this 0.38 mile trek down to the beach.  With less than 2 hours of daylight left, we stepped foot on many of these trailheads but did not hike any of them all the way through...

 Cable Trail and Bloody Nose Trail across the street from Sandspit

 You can drive right up to this secret paradise...

 

 Bluff Trail 2.1 miles

 Valencia Trail 2.0 Miles

 Beyond the end of the paved road

 Trailhead to the southernmost part of this park

 Islay Creek Campground - Spooner Ranch House

Heading back to Los Osos

 

You can easily spend all day here hiking the many trails, some of which are not included in the pics above.  The trails don't look that overly interesting.  That said, I'm sure the path would tell a different story if I actually completed one of them to the destination point... 

 

Day #943 * Hike #1204* New Track #936
Baywood Park Pier - Los Osos, CA
Sweet Springs Nature Preserve
Sunday June 16, 2013
My Tripometer: 1 Hour * 1 Mile * +0 Feet

 Pasadena Coastal Access

 

We finally arrived in the small town of Los Osos.  For some reason I thought that there was an old rickety pier in this town and I was determined to find it.  However I believe the town that had the pier was Cayucos, north of Morro Bay and Los Osos is south.  In any event, we drove down some dirt roads and through the street construction to find the Pasadena Coastal Acess.  No - no pier...

 

 Baywood Park Pier

 The Pier?

Nah, this wasn't what I was looking for but an interesting find nevertheless...

 Central Coast Birding Trail

 Sweet Springs Nature Preserve

Let's go birdwatching...

We found some small private piers but like I said, not the old public pier that I was once on during a rainstorm many years ago.  This small town is - well - strange?  We hung out until dark, stopped by Starbucks and then finally drove 2+ hours back to Ventura...