Montana de Oro State Park

The name means "Mountain of Gold" — earned each spring when wildflowers take the hillsides. Eight thousand acres of Central Coast, six miles southwest of Morro Bay: ocean bluffs, sandy beaches, dunes, tide pools, and seven miles of undeveloped shoreline. Valencia Peak tops out at 1,347 feet. The Chumash were here long before the Spanish arrived in 1542, and the land changed hands repeatedly before California purchased it in 1965. Spooner's Cove is the well-known beach; the Bluff Trail follows the coast; the summit trails go higher if you want the full picture.