On Hwy-1, 14 miles West of San Luis Obispo. Some very agreeable seafood restaurants cook up the daily catch of the local fishing fleet in Morro Bay, an otherwise only moderately interesting town whose best feature is the imposing volcanic hunk of Morro Rock, a near-vertical slab rising 576 feet immediately off-shore.

Morro Rock is a protected nesting ground for peregrine falcons and climbing it – once, a popular local pastime – is prohibited.

Just south of the town, Morro Bay State Park (http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=594) extends across inland hills and around coastal marshlands. Home to an abundance of great blue herons, among many other species, this is one of California’s foremost bird-watching spots. The Museum of Natural History (http://ccspa.info), opposite the park’s entrance, engagingly recounts the earliest human settlements in the area and explains the intricacies of local ecology.