Adventure 051, Site 041 – Morro Rock

Capture California, the Game-2012

Adventure: 051, Site 041 – Morro Rock

California Landmark Number: 821

Team: Thing One, Thing Two

Date:  September 18, 2012

Location:

Latitude: 35° 22.232′ N

Longitude: 120° 51.899′ W

Address: North of Morro Bay, at the end of Embarcadero St

Description:

You would think that something as large and prominent as Morro Rock would not be a hard thing to find. We saw the rock already, but had a hard time finding the plaque—it is right at the base of the rock, in a large parking lot. We thought the plaque was closer to town. But the plaque does describe how sailors would use this rock as a navigational aide for their safe passage.



Morro Rock is one of the nine morro's surrounding the San Luis Obispo/Morro Bay area. These morro's are remnants of early volcanic activity. The effect is that you feel surrounded by mountains in this area. Morro Rock is just the most pronounced, being by the ocean.



NO. 821 MORRO ROCK - An important mariner's navigational landfall for over three hundred years, Morro Reef was chronicled in the diaries of Portolá, Fr. Crespí, and Costanso in 1769, when they camped near this area on their trek to find Monterey. Sometimes called the 'Gibraltar of the Pacific,' it is the last
Location: Located in city park, foot of Morro Rock, on Embarcadero Rd, 0.4 mi NW of Morro Bay
• In 1542, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, the Portugese explorer, sighted and named Morro Rock.
• In 1769, Gaspar de Portola, Father Juan Crespi, and some sixty other men and one hundred mules marched north on an overland expedition from San Diego, to find Monterey Bay, camping at one point near Morro Rock.
• The Rock was quarried periodically from 1889 to 1963. In 1966 the State of California obtained title to it, and in 1968 was declared a state landmark, and Morro Rock is now a nature preserve.



References:

• Morro Rock History and its Sisters
  
• Wikipedia
  
• HMDB.org
  

Overall Landmark References:

• David Schmitt's California State Historical Landmark (Schmitt)
  
• Wikipedia: California's National Landmarks (WCNL)
  
• State of California's California Historical Landmarks (CHL)
  
• Wikipedia: California State Landmarks (WCSL)
  
• State of California Historical Resources (CHR)
  
• National Registry of Historical Places (NRHP)
  

Adventure 008, Hike 124 - Bluff's Trail

Capture California, the Game-2012

Adventure: 008, Hike 124 - Bluff's Trail

Team: Thing One, Thing Two

Date:  September 18, 2012

Location: Montana de Oro State Park Los Osos

Hike Info:

Trail: Bluff's trail

Distance: 3.9 miles

Duration: 1:27

Elevation Rise: 269'

Description:

This trail started at Spooner's cove across the road from the campground. It is a superb trail that goes along the ocean close to the cliffs. Thing One and Thing Two had the privilege of doing this trail with our son. It is also always great to watch and listen to the waves. There were many kinds of birds that were swooping and diving on the wind currents by the ocean. There is also an area to go down to the tide pools. We have been there many times. The starfish are colorful. The end of the trail meets up with Pecho Road which is an extension of the older Pecho Trail. Unfortunately the trail is a restricted use trail since it runs across the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Facility. Once we reached the end we returned by the same trail.

Adventure 008, Hike 095 - Portela Hill Trail

Capture California, the Game-2012

Adventure: 008, Hike 095- Portola Hill Trail

Team: Thing One, Thing Two

Date:  September 6, 2012

Location: Morro State Park - Cerra Cabrillo area

Hike Info:

Trail: Portola Trail

Distance: 0.6 miles

Duration: 0:30

Elevation Rise: 156'

Description:
After a full morning of hiking on the trails of Cerra Cabrillo, the question was do we want to ascend this hill on this trail? Thing One and Thing Two’s answer was we came, we see, we hike, so away we went. We were looking forward to the view that we would get from this hike and were pleasantly surprised by the shade of the live oaks along the way. We also came across a couple of locals that said they do not get sun this time of year--it is usually overcast. So when we got to the top of this rounded volcanic hill we had a fabulous view of the estuary as well as surrounding morros. A bench, where we were sat, enabled us to enjoy the view set before us.

Further information from the trail sign on who the trail was named after: ”Don Gaspar de Portola guided a large land expedition along the California Coast in 1769. Portola was going to rendezvous with a supply ship at Monterey Bay. He was unable to find the bay and continued north to the bay at San Francisco. Portola returned to San Diego later in the year. Another Spaniard was also in town. He was a Franciscan friar called Father Junipero Serra. He would sail on ship to Monterey and establish mission San Carlos de Monterey in 1777. This was the first of many missions that Father Serra would help establish.”

Adventure 008, Hike 094 -Live Oak Trail

Capture California, the Game-2012

Adventure:008, Hike 094 - Live Oak Trail

Team: Thing One, Thing Two

Date:  September 6, 2012

Location: Morro State Park- Cerro Cabrillo trails

Hike Info:

Trail: Live Oak trail

Distance: 1.3 Miles

Duration: 1:13

Elevation Rise: 278'

 

Description:
This was going to be one of the last trails of the day. When we started Thing Two was looking forward to this trail to see these trees. Even though it was not even 70 degrees, Thing One and Thing Two were getting warm. The trees would be a relief to hiking on the exposed side of the Cerro Cabrillo hills. The trees were not as large or as many as Thing Two anticipated but it was still nice to be in live oak. (Thing One thought there were more oaks that were dead than living oaks.) But along the way, we saw the Tikki Heads. These are rocks which jut straight up and in some cases look like heads. We picked up the trail after coming off the Park Ridge Trail near one of the parking lots. It connected to the Portola Hill trail and then to the Quarry trail.

Further information from the trail sign on Live Oak is: “The Coast Live Oak (Quercus Agrifolia) is the predominant oak found along the Coast of San Luis Obispo County. Urban sprawl and problems with natural regeneration currently threaten many type of California Oaks. The Chumash used the acorn from the coast live oak for much of their diet.

Adventure 008, Hike 093 - Crespi Trail

Capture California, the Game-2012

Adventure: 008, Hike 093 - Crespi Trail

Team: Thing One, Thing Two

Date:  September 6, 2012

Location: Morro State Park Cerro Cabrillo trails

Hike Info:

Trail: Crespi Trail

Distance: 1.5 miles

Duration: 0:51

Elevation Rise: 267'

Description:
We came to this trail after being on the Chumash trail. As we turned on this trail ,Thing Two is talking about where has she heard the name Crespi. She knows the name sounded familiar. It came from our earlier Capture California Adventures. He was heavily involved in the establishment and running of several missions. We were not expecting a lot from this trail, just looking at the visual of the hillside. It was getting warmer and Thing Two's feet were getting tired. The trailed ended up being our favorite in this area.


You went through the native grass of the area and head up and down the hill. It was fabulous when we came to a section with live oaks. Not only were they a welcome relief from the Coastal heat, but they were great to look at. There were a variety of different plants on this trail that we did not see on the other parts of the hill. It is always interesting when a slight difference of elevation, a turn in the path, or possibly a slight change in the micro-climate allows for a different variety of plant to form.

From the sign What is in a Name: Crespi-Father Juan Crespi was the diarist of the Spanish land expedition let by Gaspar de Portola. This party of about 65 mounted horsemen and 100 pack mules marched up the California coast in 1760 from San Diego to Monterey Bay. On September 8^th, Crespi remarked about the scenery from their camp near los Osos:

An estuary of immense size enters this valley, so large that it looked like a harbor to us; its mouth open to the southwest…….to the north, we saw a great rock in the form of a morro, which at high tide is isolated from the coast by little less that a gunshot.”

Adventure 008, Hike 092 - Chumash Trail

Capture California, the Game-2012

Adventure: 008, Hike 092 - Chumash Trail

Team: Thing One, Thing Two

Date:  September 6, 2012

Location: Morro State Park-Cerro Cabrillo

Hike Info:

Trail: Chumash Trail

Distance: 0.4 miles

Duration: 0:15

Elevation Rise: 14'

 

Description:
This trail is named in honor of the Native Americans from this area. Thing Two was looking forward to this hike. She thought it would be one of the better hikes of the area as it being named after the original inhabitants. We picked this trail up after being on the Canet and Park RidgeTrails. It is like the other trails in this area--trails going across native grasses. At one point this hike goes absolutely straight. The question is why? That is when Thing One notices that there is a natural gas line that goes along the trail. (He actually makes the crass comment that Chumash must mean White Man's Natural Gas Pipeline—but he knows better.)



You do get some nice views of the Estuary. The trails in this area are multiple use trails which are shared by bicyclists, hikers, and horse riders. There was one bicycle rider while we were on the trail. He had a bell on so we were able to step out of the way before he came zooming down the hill.

From the sign What is in a Name: Chumash- The Chumash are the native people that lived in this area before the arrival of Europeans. They lived in close harmony with natural world and a bountiful harvest from the land, creeks and ocean. One of their unique innovations was the plank canoe or tomal. It was fashioned from redwood planks that were cut from logs that drifted south of the ocean. Holes were drilled into the planks using chert tools and then lashed together with milkweed fiber. The canoe was sealed with a mixture of tar, pine pitch and red ochre color. The Chumash trail points toward the remains of a village site found near the Middle School at Los Osos.

Adventure 008, Hike 091 - Park Ridge Trail

Capture California, the Game-2012

Adventure: 008, Hike 091 - Park Ridge Trail

Team: Thing One, Thing Two

Date:  September 6, 2012

Location: Morro State Park-Cerro Cabrillo

Hike Info:

Trail: Park Ridge Trail

Distance: 1.3 miles

Duration: 1:37

Elevation Rise: 211'

 Description:
This trail is runs down the middle of Morro Bay State Park below the Cerro Cabrillo. Park Ridge is an old farm road that crosses the rolling grasslands and you get the idea of why it is called Park Ridge when you stand at the end—you end up on the ridge which separates the Los Osos valley from the Highway One corridor. Then when you look down the trail, it drops into a creek bed and does a short climb up another ridge. It follows this second ridge all the way back to the parking lot. Because of these ridges, we did get good views of the double Peak Cerro Cabrillo. One interesting aspect of this trail is when you descend down into that dried up creek bed, you notice the distinct change in soils right at the creek. One side has a sandy tan color. But when you cross, there is more of a volcanic, greyish rock soil.

From the sign What is in a Name: Park Ridge-Look at a topographic map of the area and you will find “Park Ridge” as the crested elevation between Cerro Cabrillo and Hollister Peak. Park Ridge rock is also a popular rock climbing area.

Adventure 008, Hike 090 - Canet Trail

Capture California, the Game-2012

Adventure: 008, Hike 090 - Canet Trail

Team: Thing One, Thing Two

Date:  September 6, 2012

Location: Morro State Park Cerro Cabrillo

Hike Info:

Trail: Canet

Distance: 0.4 miles

Duration: 0:12

Elevation Rise: 82'

Description:
We took this trail from the Quarry Trail down to the Park Ridge Trail. It does connect with Live Oak Trail, close to Portola Hill. We did see a fair amount of poison oak on this part of the trail. Thing Two was careful to not brush against it; Thine One is fearless, and foolish, when it comes to this menace.



Because this trail goes across one of the Nine Sister morro's of Morro Bay, we were able to have a broad view of the Cerro Cabrillo. There is some interested information regarding the Cerro Cabrillo. They are ancient volcanic mountains of the plug type. The Sierra Club has an informational page, along with some advocacy for this area.

From the sign by the Trail: Canet-Vicente Canet received a land grant of 4,400 acres in 1840. The land known as Rancho San Bernardo included much of Morro Bay. A large hacienda was built of the properly. The Canet adobe was U-shaped, more than 200 feet in length, with was three feet thick. IT was the Morro Castle at San Bernardo Creek. Pedro Quintana purchased Rancho San Bernardo in 1874.

Adventure 008, Hike 089 - Quarry Trail

Capture California, the Game-2012

Adventure: 008, Hike 089 – Quarry Trail

Team: Thing One, Thing Two

Date: September 6, 2012

Location: Quarry Trail Morro State Park

Hike Info:

Trail: Quarry Trail

Distance: 1.3 miles

Duration: 0:42

Elevation Rise: 323'

Description:

This was Thing One and Thing Two’s first trail in this area. We were hiking along the base of Cerro Cabrillo which is a two peaked plug volcano on the Nine Sisters volcano chain of morros. After we walked up the hill there was a sign for the quarry. The rock in this area was used for Highway 1. When you turned around you had views of the Morro Bay Estuary. While we were walking along this trail Thing One started thinking about the Peter, Paul and Mary’s Halloween’s song Don't Go Down to the Quarry (where people do not return.) Thing One was questioning whether we would return. We did return but on the Canet trail. It was an enjoyable trail and a go way to start to explore this area.

From the sign at the trail head: “Quarry –several areas along the southern base of Cerro Cabrillo were quarried for rock. The rock was crushed and used mainly for road base for Highway One. Other old quarry sites can be found near the Chumash trail, by turtle rock and at Black Hill”

For more information on this area: http://santalucia.sierraclub.org/ninesis.html