Pacific Coast Bike Tour

The "LA to LA" ride: Los Altos to Los Angeles.

Day 5 · Wednesday, September 9

Paso Robles → Oceano

Distance
59.5mi95.8km
Elevation gain
2635ft803m
Elevation loss
3323ft1013m
Max elevation
1528ft466m
Paso Robles → Oceano Switch basemap (elevation / vegetation / plain) top-right; click any point for Google Maps, Apple Maps or Street View.
Download GPX — Day 5 Open in Ride with GPS

Google Maps Apple Maps Neither opens this route — they take only a start and an end over a link, so each draws its own way between Paso Robles and Oceano. Use them for the lie of the land; the GPX and Ride with GPS have the line we ride.

The day at a glance

Starts in the Paso Robles AVA, one of California's largest, where hot days and cool nights suit cabernet and the rhône varieties; the vineyards run right up to the edge of town and follow Highway 46 West most of the way to the ridge. Over the top the planting stops, and the coastal side is cattle ground down Old Creek to Cayucos, then vegetable fields either side of Los Osos Valley Road.

Worth looking up for

  • Crosses the range on back roads rather than a highway — Highway 46 West over the ridge at mi 15, then Santa Rita and Old Creek Roads down to the coast.
  • Morro Bay at mi 31, with Morro Rock as the landmark and the Embarcadero a few hundred feet off the route.
  • Los Osos Valley Road carries the second half to Avila and Pismo without going through San Luis Obispo.

What to watch for

  • The steep stretch is mi 14.2–15.1, 350 ft at 7.6% to the 1,528 ft summit. "Sustained pitches to about 9%" means the worst continuous half mile averages 9.9% and the worst quarter mile 11.4%; roughly a mile of the day, in pieces, sits at 9% or steeper.
  • A second climb follows at mi 22.7–23.4, 215 ft at 6.0%, on the way down Santa Rita.
  • Between Templeton at mi 7 and the edge of Morro Bay at mi 28 there is nothing but a tasting room at mi 9.6 — 21 miles with no water, food or toilets, and it is the same 21 miles that holds all the climbing. The longest stretch without water is 30.4 mi, from Paso Robles to Morro Bay.
  • Effectively unshaded.

Towns along the way

  1. 1 Paso Robles
  2. 6 Templeton
  3. 18 Santa Rita
  4. 26 Cayucos 1.0 mi off
  5. 31 Morro Bay
  6. 35 Baywood Park 0.7 mi off
  7. 52 Avila Beach 1.6 mi off
  8. 55 Shell Beach
  9. 58 Grover Beach

Stops along the way

Mapped in OpenStreetMap and carried in the GPX as waypoints, so they show on a head unit too. Distances are miles from the start. Tap a name for Google Maps, or the arrow for Apple Maps. Not verified on the ground — opening hours and whether a tap actually runs are anyone’s guess. Water and restrooms are not listed here, because they are long lists you find on the road rather than plan around — but they are in the GPX, so a head unit still shows them. A marks a stop somebody picked by hand and vouched for, rather than one the OpenStreetMap query happened to return. Everything else here is within a quarter mile of the line; the few that are further say how far.

Shops & markets 5

Food & drink 8

Worth a look 2

Restaurants in Oceano

Places to eat at the end of the day, gathered by hand rather than from OpenStreetMap, so these are not the same as the stops above and are not in the GPX. Most are a short walk from the hotel; where one is not, the address says so. Nobody has eaten at them. Opening hours are deliberately not listed — they change, and a stale hour on a page is worse than none — so tap through before you set out. A name with no link had none to hand.