Morro Bay, CA

 Morro Bay from Morro Bay State Park

Morro Bay is a quiet little oceanfront town in San Luis Obispo County, in the central part of California. It is strategically located in between two of California's bigger cities, Los Angeles in the South and San Francisco in the North, about 3.5 hours drive from these two cities. It is about one hour drive to the southern part of Big Sur coast. Its proximity to Big Sur was the reason why we chose Morro Bay as one of our destinations during our last Big Sur vacation. Staying in Morro Bay for 2 nights allowed us to see more of the south part of Central California such as Pismo Beach Butterfly Migration and Oceano Sand Dunes without draining our energy when we finally got to Big Sur for several days of  nature exploring.

 Morro Bay and Morro Rock

The famous landmark in Morro Bay is Morro Rock, which is a 576 ft high volcanic plug. There is no public climbing nor hiking to the rock itself because it is the nesting home for the local endangered peregrine falcons. 

 Peregrine Falcon @ Morro Rock ( photo by hubby)

Peregrine Falcons are the fastest flying birds, they can dive up to 200 miles per hour towards it prey.  

They are powerful and fast-flying predator birds that prey on birds, where they have been observed preying birds as large as sandhill crane and as small as a hummingbird. We actually did not see these birds right away when we were exploring the area around Morro Rock, however, we saw a guy with huge binocular. In most of our nature escapades, we always find that it pays great to ask! Hubby asked the guy with the binocular if what he was observing, and the guy told us about the nesting peregrine falcons on one of the ledges of Morro Rock. As he was pointing above, he knew we would not see it, so he adjusted his binocular for us to see the peregrines. It was amazing, because his binoculars made the peregrine look like so next to us, so beautiful, and so full of power and life. We were so motivated afterwards to get a good binocular too, however, after careful searching, the good binoculars are also as heavy if not heavier than our zoom lens. 

Aside from the falcons,other birds that make Morro Rock their home are cormorants and several species of gulls. Aside from birds, sea lions and sea otters also are seen in the area surrounding Morro Rock. 

 Paddle Boarders @ Morro Bay

The bay in the above picture may look calm for paddle boarding, however, at the side where it is exposed to the ocean, the giant and powerful waves were probably heaven for the surfers.

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