Piedres Blancas Light Station
Last weekend I went camping up at San Simeon State Park outside of Cambria, which is just north of Morro Bay, CA. This is a stretch of coast I truly absolutely love, and have driven through countless times on the way up to Monterey several times a year. That's just it though, I've always just driven THROUGH. There has always been some destination to reach at some specific time, so I've never had the opportunity to just take time to explore and check it all out. Camping two nights at San Simeon though, just for fun, with nowhere else to be, finally made that possible!
One of the many things I've always wanted to stop and check out is the Piedras Blancas Light Station, first illuminated in 1875. It has a particularly interesting history, having changed hands over the years from the US Lighthouse Service, to the US Coast Guard, and then finally to Bureau Land Management. The shape of it also looks a little funny because in 1948 the decision was made to remove the top portion due to the accumulation of damage from earthquakes. The original "first order fresnel lens" was saved and is still on display in Cambria (pictured here in the last photo). The BLM organization who runs the light station is raising money to one day reinforce the tower and restore the upper levels to it's original configuration. Super cool!
You can only gain access to the 20 acre property by booking a (mostly self guided) tour, which is only $10 and WELL worth it! Beautiful property, amazing history, and great tour guides and BLM rangers. Outside of the light station theres also many miles of coastal trails within the Piedras Blancas State Marine Reserve & Conservation area. I had previously driven by a lot of this region and assumed it was all private property since it's fenced off from the road, but nope you can actually hike those trails as long as you enter at one of the designated points 🤯 I did a few miles, but will have to come back on the spring to do a lot more
