On Hwy-101/Hwy-l, 12 miles South of San Luis Obispo. The local Chamber of Commerce describes Pismo Beach as ‘friendly and old fashioned,’ as fair a description as any of this small coastal community, filled each summer by the vacationing pensioners who can’t afford California’s more famous retreats. There was a time when succulent Pismo clams could be dug up from the sands forming Pismo State Beach, running either side of the town. Threatened with extinction, the creature is now under state protection.

Detour – Nipomo Dunes Preserve

South of Pismo Beach, this reserve protects several miles of large (some are 500-ft-high) and ever-moving sand dunes, which fulfil an important ecological role: they allow numerous species of coarse vegetation to thrive and provide a habitat for brown pelicans and California least terns. In one dune, director Cecil B. de Mille buried the entire set of his 1923 film, The Ten Commandments. In 1990 excavation work commenced on the “Ten Commandment Dune” (near the entrance just west of the village of Guadalope, on Hwy-1) with the intention of unearthing the evidence of one of Hollywood’s greatest cinematic excesses – the four-ton plaster sphinxes emerging from the sands are just the start.