Adventures in Moro and Pismo

Moro Strand State Beach Campground is a great place if what you want to do is use it as a jumping off point, as its right off highway 1. It is most especially convenient because this is one of the stops for the local trolley system. However if you are looking for a great outdoorsy experience, you may want to look elsewhere. The parking lot feel is inescapable. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the few steps it took to get to the beach, not to mention seeing the ocean from our campsite. Sinking into the sand, vs hard earth was wonderful, as it contoured to the shape of your body. The sound of the tide as we sat by our fire, fell asleep and especially in the early morning as we woke made it all worth it, but I don't think we'll stay here again.
After setting up camp, we made our way over a bit to Moro Bays Natural History Museum & Observation "Hill". We had a good time and got a few great shots of the saltwater marsh.
We visited Spooner's Cove in Montana de Oro State Park. This place has the coolest rock formations and a huge diversity of colored pebbles on the beach. It has exceptionally nice tidepools as well. We have passed by this park many times. So before we left home I asked some fellow stupendous goal setting creatures, you know people starving for some time among nature, what ONE destination we shouldn't miss, this is where they sent us. After realizing this park is of such colossal proportions we've decided we simply must camp here for some more in depth exploration.
After swinging back by Moro Bay to take in Moro Rock Preserve (here we saw a family of otters playing in Moro's Estero Bay) and bird watching at the Moro Estuary Channels. We ended the evening with the usual rituals and then took in the sunset on the beach, just lovely.
Sunday, as I already stated we arose to the sound of the waves hitting the beach. We were up early, and so we had an early start. We enjoyed an air of quiet activity in the Blue Heron Rookery, El Moro Elfin Forest and the Los Oso Oaks Preserve (where I collected some poison oak on the back of my knees).
Before noon we found a parking spot and spent the rest of the day at Pismo Beach where we soaked in the sun. Jeff and I took a long walk collecting shells, sand dollars and sea stones. Billy & Jeff went scim boarding. Ricky and Jeff went boogie boarding.
Our last stop was to our favorite funky little fish & chip spot in shell beach. We got our dinner to go and had a picnic over looking the ocean and tide pools below craggy cliff sides. We all came home with sun burns.