Guadalupe Dunes and Oso Flaco Lake

The Chamber of Commerce is glad that warmer weather has now arrived in Pismo Beach.  The last few and the next few days are supposed to have temperatures in the seventies along with bright, sunny skies. 

For today's walk, Dave and I drove south on Highway 1 to Oso Flaco (Skinny Bear) Lake, just a bit northwest of the town of Guadalupe.  We take this walk every year when we are here, and it's an enjoyable walk along a dirt path, then a boardwalk over the lake and up to the edge of the dunes and ocean.   It's a state park which charges $5 to park, but Dave bought a senior off-season pass for $20, so we were able to park here for free.

Little Oso Flaco Lake

As we reached the lake, we met a group of photographers who had been out bird-watching.

My own attempt at bird photography.

The last part of the boardwalk as it climbs up over the dunes.

We made it!

Where's this 747 going?  Maybe to Tokyo??

I always enjoy seeing swans, but in this case, this might be a pelican.

After our walk at Oso Flaco, we drove a short distance to nearly Rancho Guadalupe Dunes Preserve.  This area is a county park with no entrance fee.  The road goes all the way out through the dunes to the ocean.  With six foot waves, this area appeared to be popular with surfers.

Sand mining plant on the way to the Preserve

On the way home we stopped in Santa Maria and ate an outdoor lunch at one of our favorit iconic California eateries:

And, oh yes, here's the story about Skinny Bear.  According to legend, the Chumash Indians used to hang their rotten meat for the bears.  The bears would eat it, then get sick and become skinny.  Then the Indians would eat the bears, and they would become sick.  I'm not sure what the story has to do with the lake, but there it is. 

One more detail about the Guadalupe Dunes is that the Ten Commandments was filmed there and after the filming, Cecil B. DeMille decided that the sets should be buried in the dunes.  They are still there, and are reportedly buried somewhere behind the sand mining plant that I showed.  One of the latter movies to be filmed in these dunes was Pirates of the Caribbean starring Johnny Depp.  Dave and I both agreed that we could picture Lawrence of Arabia riding through the dunes!