Well, finally! After nearly seven weeks of various commitments occupying the bulk of our weekend attentions, we found ourselves with a free weekend in Pismo Beach. Among the hiking options we’ve been considering is the coastal access trail in Harmony Headlands State Park, located along Highway 1 between Cayucos and Cambria – formerly private ranch land, a local conservancy group purchased the property a few years ago and opened it for public use. The park is still in an underdeveloped state, its trail system consisting of a single 1-1/2-mile-long dirt road running westward from the highway to the ocean, coupled with some unmaintained paths that run both north and south along the bluffs. We arrived at the trailhead about 11am, and it took us a while to get organized after so many weeks off. As we headed west up the gently graded road, Jane set what felt to Chris like a blistering pace – after the first mile or so, the GPS indicated we had averaged 3.5 mph out of the gate, which is pretty quick for us. It was very easy walking as we proceeded up a shallow valley, crested a barely perceptible pass, and then began to lose elevation as the road bent westward to a gap in the hills along the coast – typical of this time of the year, the grasses have all dried out, but one can imagine what this valley looks like in springtime with scattered patches of wildflowers. We followed the road down past some random eucalyptus trees to our first white water views of waves crashing in the cove below, and the view became panoramic up and down the coast as we emerged from the hills and reached the bluff top. A bench along the road here marks the start of the single track (the bench is apparently popular, as we saw different sets of people perched on it each of the three times we walked by), and, after pausing to take some photos, we followed the northern branch along the cliff. This narrow path led another half mile or so north to a sheltered cove where the tranquil ocean seemed even more placid with hardly a swell – we reached the northern park boundary shortly thereafter, where we followed the fence line for a short distance east before returning southward along the parallel dirt road. When we got back to the bench, we decided to explore the single track south, looking for a good lunch spot since the bench was again occupied – the trail descended steeply (the first time that word has been used in this post) to a dry creek crossing before rising to an obvious turnaround point at the edge of a tall cliff. Here, the coastline to the south becomes much more rugged, and we could see no evidence of any more trails in this direction. We instead returned to the creek bed and ate our lunch on some large sandstone boulders at its mouth in the cove we first saw from the road – it was a very pleasant spot. After about 20 minutes, we headed back up the trail to the yet-again-occupied bench and followed the road back to the trailhead. Despite the dry hillsides, this was a nice little hike – the ocean scenery was beautiful, the 4-1/2-mile walk was very comfortable, and what poison oak we saw was located well off the trail. We’ll have to return for the wildflowers in the spring.