In a residential neighborhood, just south of downtown San Luis Obispo, is the trailhead for South Hills Open Space. We had stopped by this curbside trailhead once before a few months earlier, deciding that the trail didn’t look too appealing at the time. After our brief hike up Black Hill in Morro Bay, we were still eager to do some more walking, and South Hills came to mind as a good follow-up. It took a little exploration to find the trailhead again, and by the time we found it, it was late afternoon (of course, we’d had a late start to the day already). The trail immediately began to climb after crossing a vacant lot near the street, and we quickly reached a gate separating what appears to be ranch land from the rest of the subdivision. We then reached a saddle where the trail forked – we turned left up a rocky hillside into which the trail vanished (the other fork descends to the south side of the hills where it is joined by a single track that exits the hills’ east end, offering a return loop to hikers like us who chose the path directly to the summit). Invisible from below, the trail is apparent when you’re on it, and it swichbacks steeply up South Hills’ rocky western slope to a false summit. After cresting the first rise, we realized a second false summit lay beyond, and upon reaching the second crest, we could see the true summit a short distance behind it. The top yielded wide open views of the whole area, from Islay Hill and Edna Valley in the east to the ocean barely visible through Los Osos Valley to the west. Having made the summit in just 17 minutes, we hung out on top for about that long again as we took in the views. After snapping pictures at the summit block (a short jumble of rocks about 3 feet high), we returned down the rocky path to the car, Chris pausing in a couple of places to photograph the interesting blue-green rocks for our geologist son-in-law, Pedro. A nice little walk that we’d like to do again in the springtime when the grass is greener.