Pismo Beach

 Pismo Beach California 

April 4 - 11, 2025

Pismo Beach Pier

It finally arrived, Leaving Day! The first drive is our longest planned, a little over 300 miles. We left at 10:00 on Friday April 4 (Denis' Dad's birthday). A lot of firsts. Our first big drive. Our first time towing the CRV, our first stop on the trip. 

First Campfire at Pismo Coast Village RV Resort 

Thankfully, the drive went smoothly. A bit of traffic through LA but we took 15 to skirt the heart of it. Arrived at Pismo Beach around 4 and set everything up. 

 

Murray leading a staff enrichment retreat

We are about 200 feet from the beach just over a small dune. The beaches are very long and pretty empty. Dogs are allowed so we took ours for the first of many walks here. Pismo is kinda known for the Dunes (1) and you can drive a car (and ride a horse!) on the beach. We stuck to riding our e-bikes for the most part though. 

Didn't measure this but it's close to legal size.

Pismo was also known for the Pismo clam, although they apparently got overfished and the last one of legal size was taken in the 1990s. However, we saw guidelines indicating that they were coming back and we saw several that were legal (41/2 inches in diameter). After much debate, largely focussed on how close our respective health care facilities were, we decided not to try to catch some for dinner.

Varella Varella are the lemmings
of the sea world

On the beaches we saw thousands of Varella Varella washed up on the shore - these are like blue jellyfish things but they are NOT jellyfish!(2)  Their little clear sails carry them where the wind blows. Here comes Sue's first social blunder in Pismo: observing a couple checking out the VV, she stomped up to them and said "Varella Varella!" - they looked, not surprisingly, like they wanted to call the police so would not recommend this approach. 

The town is very tiny(3) which worked well for Sue because there is literally like one street so even she could not get lost. It's cute and the vibe is very Ocean Beach, San Diego, though far less weed. 

Avila Beach Cave

Hiking is great in Pismo especially the Pismo Preserve. On our last full day there we made an unwise choice to hike the Ontario Bluff Trail which begins with 800 feet of straight uphill. We were hunched over grabbing the vegetation on the side of the trail to keep from hurtling down the hill. Views were good. See pic of the Cave which is at Avila Beach (note to my niece Liz, there is a nude beach there!)

Many oaks here have Spanish moss  

Sue on the Ontario Bluff Trail

Straight up from sea level to 800 ft.
This was a tough climb!

Fog rolling in to Sleepy Pismo Beach

Murray, always the professional, asking us to leave the area so he could scold Klaus for not completing his change of work location forms.

Sunset view from beach near our RV park.

Asian Fish tacos and clam chowder at
Wooleys on the Pismo Pier

Not the most exciting food destination. We had some mediocre clams before we learned that they were not local.  The clam chowder was generally a bit too thick and rich for us. The best meal we had was the halibut we brought with us from our Wild Alaskan fish delivery! We shared a roll from Old West Cinnamon Rolls, that always had a line out the door , and it did not disappoint! 

It was hard to beat the view from Wooley's

Finally, We drove up the coast to Paso Robles to visit Sues BFF of over 40 years, Melissa, for dinner.  







Next stop: Monterey! Stay classy and stay tuned!

Footnotes:

(1) Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes is the larges Dune system south of San Francisco and the second largest in the state. It runs 18 miles and is a National Natural landmark.

(2) Thanks to Kevin Ring's Insta we know this.

(3) Pismo Beach population is approximately 8,000