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A Weekend on Highway 1: Morro Bay to Cambria
Updated: 2 days ago
There is a version of Highway 1 that is a long drive to Big Sur with the Central Coast as scenery out the window. Then there is the version we live with, where the road between Morro Bay and Cambria is not a route but a neighborhood, with a bakery, a pier, a beach, and a hill we have all stood on. This is a weekend on Highway 1 for the second version. We have laid it out as a series of stops, in order heading north, and you can spread them over two days however the fog and your appetite suggest.
BREAKWATER · SEA OTTERS · THE FISHING FLEET
Stop one: Morro Rock and the Embarcadero
Begin at the rock. Morro Rock stands at the mouth of the harbor, a volcanic plug that anchors every view in town, and the parking lot at its base is where locals go to watch surfers, sea otters in the harbor, and the fishing fleet coming in. Walk the breakwater side in the morning, then double back along the Embarcadero, the waterfront strip of fish markets, restaurants, and the working docks that make Morro Bay a fishing town first and a tourist town second.
If you have a couple of hours, rent a kayak or paddleboard and get out on the bay. The estuary behind the sandspit is calm, full of birds, and one of the best paddles in the state. Our guide to kayaking and paddleboarding in Morro Bay covers where to launch and how to read the tides. On the way out of town, the Museum of Natural History in Morro Bay State Park and the bay overlook beside it are worth a short stop.
THE PIER · BROWN BUTTER COOKIE COMPANY · RUDDELL'S SMOKEHOUSE
Stop two: Cayucos
A short drive north, Cayucos is the beach town that stayed small, and it is where we suggest sleeping if you want a quiet base. The stops here are simple and non-negotiable. Walk the pier. Stand in line at Brown Butter Cookie Company, whose brown butter sea salt cookies are the unofficial souvenir of the Central Coast.
Get a smoked fish taco at Ruddell's Smokehouse, a tiny place by the beach that locals have loved for years. Then walk the beach, which runs long and wide toward Morro Rock, or drive north a few minutes to the smaller beaches beyond town, where the surf breaks and the crowds thin.
Cayucos on a weekday feels like a village. On a summer weekend it feels like the whole county came to the beach. Both are true, and residents would not have it any other way.
GLASSBLOWING STUDIO · CREAMERY · CHAPEL
Stop three: Harmony
You will nearly miss it. Harmony is a former dairy town of a few buildings tucked in a bend of the highway, famous for a population sign that reads eighteen, a working glassblowing studio, a creamery making small-batch ice cream, and a chapel that has hosted a great many Central Coast weddings. Stop for fifteen minutes, or for an hour if the glassblowers are working. The winery in the hills above it has a view that is worth the short detour.
The land around Harmony is ranch country, and the coastal terraces here are some of the most protected open space on the California coast. This is a good moment to appreciate that the drive will look like this for a long time.
The road from Cayucos to Cambria is the reason Highway 1 has a reputation. It also happens to be the road we take to the grocery store.
EAST VILLAGE · WEST VILLAGE · LINN'S
Stop four: Cambria
Cambria is the destination for most people on this stretch, and it deserves a full day. Two villages make up the town: the East Village, the historic center along Main Street with galleries, shops, and the restaurants locals recommend, and the West Village closer to the ocean with more of the same. Between them is Linn's, the bakery and restaurant that made olallieberry pie a regional institution.
The town's best feature is its coast. The Moonstone Beach boardwalk runs along the bluffs above a cobble beach for a mile of easy walking, with benches, tide pools below, and, in winter, gray whales offshore.
The Fiscalini Ranch Preserve, a large piece of protected bluff and forest on the west side of town, has a bluff trail that locals walk daily and a forest loop through the Monterey pines that define Cambria's look and feel. Do both. Then, for a piece of Cambria eccentricity, drive past Nitt Witt Ridge, the folk-art house built from found objects that has become a historic landmark.
Cambria runs on a different clock than the rest of the county, quieter and foggier and more inward, and our guide to living in Cambria is the honest version of what that means year-round.
HEARST CASTLE · PIEDRAS BLANCAS
Stop five: San Simeon and beyond
If the weekend has a second morning, keep going. San Simeon is a small cluster of hotels and a state beach with a pier, and above it is Hearst Castle, which is worth doing once in your life and which visiting relatives will insist on. The elephant seal rookery at Piedras Blancas is a short way past the castle turnoff, free, and one of the best wildlife stops on the coast; our guide to elephant seal season at Piedras Blancas explains what you will see in each month. Ragged Point, farther north, is where the Big Sur coast begins in earnest, and its viewpoint makes a natural turnaround.
DAY ONE · DAY TWO · WATCH THE FOG
How to arrange the two days
The way we would split it:
Day one. Morro Bay in the morning, a paddle or the Embarcadero, lunch in Cayucos, an afternoon on the beach, and the drive to Cambria in the late light. Dinner in the East Village.
Day two. Fiscalini Ranch or Moonstone Beach at first light, breakfast in Cambria, the elephant seals and San Simeon, and a slow drive back south with a stop at Harmony and one more cookie in Cayucos.
Watch the fog. Early summer mornings on this coast can be gray until midday, and the afternoons are the reward. Fall is the clearest season and the one we recommend for the drive.
When the drive becomes a decision
We have watched more than a few clients start this weekend as tourists and end it asking what homes in Cayucos or Cambria actually cost. The answer depends heavily on which side of the highway, how close to the water, and which of the microclimates you are in, and our guide to living along the Harmony, Cayucos, and Cambria coast is the place to start. When you are ready to see homes on this stretch, we are glad to plan a day around it. Tell us which town stopped you and we will take it from there.
Talk With Kim & Kristen
We are Kim San Jule and Kristen Gentry, Broker Associates with Real Broker, serving San Luis Obispo County and the Central Coast. Whether you are buying, selling, or simply thinking ahead, we are glad to be a resource.
Kim San Jule · Broker Associate, DRE 01948144 · 805-345-8303 · kimsanjule@gmail.com
Kristen Gentry · Broker Associate, DRE 01968754 · 805-441-4618 · kristengentryslo@gmail.com
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