Having visited Montana de Oro State Park to hike Valencia Peak a few weeks earlier, we decided to explore other trails in the area on our next weekend trip to Pismo Beach down the coast. That Saturday, Jane’s Aunt Bev and Uncle Gary picked us up at our trailer, and the four of us drove up to Montana de Oro to walk the Bluffs Trail that runs along the cliffs south of the park headquarters at Spooner’s Cove. The weather was again cool and overcast, but the scenery was beautiful and the walk very pleasant. We followed the ragged curvature of the cliffline, treated to continuous views of the crashing waves on the rocks below. There were some school kids there on a field trip, and we heard some of their docent’s lectures as our pace overlapped theirs. The trail was fairly level, eventually descending slightly along the low bluffs that ring a small cove in which lies Grotto Rock, a large offshore monolith that has been hollowed out underneath by the rushing tides. It was quite picturesque and we took some photos with the rock as a backdrop. Although the trail continues eastward to link up with the paved Pecho Valley Road that we could use for our return, we chose to retrace our steps back along the cliffs, though we did take a cutoff that led directly back to the car as we neared the trailhead. This was a fine walk for anyone looking for a casual, low impact hike that offers great scenery and fresh ocean air.