Kirsten Anderberg's
Southern CA Urban Adventures:
SAN LUIS OBISPO

Where Is San Luis Obispo (SLO) County?

San Luis Obispo is located approximately 200 miles north of Los Angeles, and 100 miles north of Santa Barbara. It is considered "Central California" as it is about halfway between LA and San Francisco. Highway 101/1 cuts through the towns in a north-south direction. The ocean is a short drive from SLO, and the area contains 8 volcanic remnants that make beautiful landmarks in the area. Click on the city name below to view attractions and services available in each of the SLO County cities below...

San Luis Obispo

What Are Some of the Attractions in San Luis Obispo (SLO)?

Some of the most popular tourist attractions in the SLO area are the old San Luis Obispo de Tolosa Mission, CAL POLY State University, The Madonna Inn and The Hearst Castle. Aside from these attractions, SLO offers a wealth of cultural events (music, art, etc.) and has stunning nature to explore. The surrounding hills have hiking paths and there are nature preserves surrounding the town. The botanical garden in town is also delightful. This webpage will highlight some of my favorite parts of the SLO region. (I have lived in SLO, Cambria, Oxnard and Ventura and visit SLO regularly.)

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SLO sunset over the Nine Sisters...(Photo: Kirsten Anderberg, Sept 2008)

About The Town

SLO is a small town surrounded by intense green hills on the slopes of dormant volcanic plugs, called The Nine Sisters. You can read more about these hills at the Sierra Club site. The slopes of these hills are so lush and green in the spring, that they dominate the town. SLO has a rich agriculture presence, and the local university, California Polytechnic State University, has a strong background in agriculture. As someone who has lived in SLO, let me tell you, it rains a lot there. It is sunny a lot too, but during the winter, it rained really hard and a lot. Many of the students I knew attending Cal Poly were studying solar technology and glass blowing, back in the 1970's, before that was prevalent all over. SLO has a vibrant artist community and also has had successful health food stores since the 1970's. But it is still a small town and I remember seeing lots of foreign films while in SLO, because in the 1970's when I was there, the only movie theater in town played Saturday Night Fever for a year solid!!!

Volcanoes Around the Town

The hills of the Nine Sisters volcanic plug slopes, surrounding SLO, are full of orchards of lemons, oranges, figs, avocados, almonds and more. When I lived in SLO, avocados were all over on the ground, as avocado trees were thriving en masse in the front of many of the town's apartment houses. You could also find figs and almonds and many other abandoned trees around in the hills...it is a great place to ramble around on hills, maybe having a picnic under an oak tree on the way. The hills and canyons around SLO are truly gorgeous. The largest hill in SLO is Cerro San Luis, but the Nine Sisters hills run all the way to the ocean, ending with Morro Rock, in Morro Bay. These volcanoes have not been active for 20,000,000 years, but their plugs still dominate the landscape. The top of these mountains seem to be hard granite, but they are hardened lava, and it is said some of these plugs came out of the tops of volcanoes like toothpaste, very thick. The rest of the volcanic cones washed and eroded away but these plugs remain. They also have odd soil contents due to their geologic history and thus host an unusual variety of plant life and animals. When I would hike around Cerro San Luis, there were little streams with oak trees growing through the cracks in the hill, which provided a nice shade on a hot day. I remember sitting up under those oak trees a lot when I lived there, and from up there, you get a nice overview of the city. These Nine Sisters hills are unusual in that the first half of the hill is full of very mild slopes with greenery, then the upper half is shiny hard rock. Cerro San Luis is popular with hikers but since it is not public land, there are fences and private property issues on it, yet I have hiked around it with friends a lot without incident. Only once did I run into some people who lived there telling me to leave, it was when the almonds were just about ripe, and I was in an almond tree grove, and they stumbled on me and told me to leave. They were nice about it, but that is the only time I remember being told to go around some property on that hill...The Lemon Grove Trail is one of the public paths on the hill.

SLO and Public Transportation

SLO has had a good bus system for the last 3 decades.

The San Luis Obispo Mission

SLO Botanical Garden

The SLO Botanical Garden(Photo: K. Anderberg, 2009)

A Pizza Garden ~ with herbs for pizza in a round planter! (Photo: K. Anderberg, 2009)

Another view of the Pizza Garden...(Photo: K. Anderberg, 2009)

A teepee made of dried vines...(Photo: K. Anderberg, 2009)

The garden grounds...(Photo: K. Anderberg, 2009)

A look into the wall of a haybale building at the garden...(Photo: K. Anderberg, 2009)

Nature Preserves, Parks, Hiking Trails...

Cal State Poly University

Cal Poly University looking east from SLO...(Photo: Kirsten Anderberg, Sept 2008)

San Luis Obispo is the home of 4 year university, California Polytechnic State (http://www.calpoly.edu), and also houses the 2 year college, Cuesta College (http://www.cuesta.edu). Both are exceptional schools in safe environments, in a beautiful city. Cal Poly (Cal State University) has a large sprawling campus. It is pretty and has a lot of green space. It has a more modern feel, not like the stately older buildings on campuses like the University of Washington. Surrounding the west side of campus is a lot of dorm housing and as you move more towards the downtown area, apartment houses are more common, along with really beautiful houses on residential side streets. The downtown pretty much consists of one street, a street lined with fig, lemon and orange trees. The downtown area has an old mission, part of the California mission series, and its adobe walls are worthy of a look. The central downtown plaza attracts several outside festivals a year, and a babbling stream runs through the main downtown area, allowing for some little bridges, etc. across town.

Hearst Castle

Places to Stay in SLO

the SLO Hostel

SLO Hostel...(Photo: Kirsten Anderberg, Sept 2008)

The Madonna Inn

The Madonna Inn is a tourist attraction partly because of its unusual style. The owner liked things to be pink, thus there is an unusual amount of pink at the Madonna Inn, inside and out. But they also have themed rooms which makes a stay there more of an adventure and something to write home about. Their themed "Caveman" room, for instance, has rock walls reminiscent of caves, with animal prints, etc.

The Madonna Inn in SLO (Photo: K. Anderberg, 2009)

Inside the Madonna Inn's dining room...(Photo: K. Anderberg, 2009)

Inside the Madonna Inn's dining room...(Photo: K. Anderberg, 2009)

Inside the Madonna Inn's dining room with dance floor...(Photo: K. Anderberg, 2009)

Inside the Madonna Inn's dining room, the bar...(Photo: K. Anderberg, 2009)

Inside the Madonna Inn's dining room...(Photo: K. Anderberg, 2009)

Vines, grapes, etc. adorn the Madonna Inn dining room and bar area...(Photo: K. Anderberg, 2009)

A Monarch butterfly in Fall in front of the Madonna Inn...(Photo: K. Anderberg, 2009)

Entrance to the Madonna Inn...(Photo: K. Anderberg, 2009)

The waterfall and pool area on the hill behind the Madonna Inn...(Photo: K. Anderberg, 2009)

Camping at El Chorro Park

Check out my Where to Stay in SLO Page for more suggestions about where to stay in SLO!

Highway 101 heading north out of SLO...

If you travel north on Highway 101 out of SLO, you will find yourself heading towards Highway 1 and Morro Bay! The beach is close by! The hills and oak trees surrounding the area on Highway 101 are also quite beautiful.