Four Days on the Central Coast with AARP

From Crai S. Bower of AARP

Regardless of your threshold for adventure, we’ve found a bevy of activities.

Monarch Butterfly Grove

Arrival Day: Butterflies, Hummingbirds & Crab Cakes

“…Visiting the Pismo Beach Monarch Butterfly Grove, which is a short loop beneath the Eucaluptus trees – prime butterfly habitat – isn’t going to take a lot of energy. But it’s a good leg stretch after touching down at the San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport.”

Day 2: E-Biking & Wine Tasting

“The geography invites you to hike and bike all morning, then ease within minutes to an afternoon of wine tasting. Nowhere is this proximity more astounding than Edna Valley, with its 27 tasting rooms that lie just 5 miles fom the Paficic.”

Breaching whale

Day 3: Whale Watching & Hiking

“As much as we focus outward to the ocean, the coastline comprises historic ranchland. Fortunately, many of these once massive spreads have been saved from development and most also pay homage to the indigenous Chumash people, who’ve lived throughout the region for more than 10,000 years.”

Covell's Clydesdales in Cambria, CA

Day 4: Horseback Riding & Elephant Seals

“The next morning, I visit the working Covell Ranch, where Tara Covell-Key leads trail rides upon her herd of clydesdales. These giants mostly walk and occasionally trot…Before I know it, I am hearing a squeal when obversing elephant seals at the Piedras Blancas Elephant Seal Rookery – specifically from a 5-month-old weanling  – when a bull weighing 2+ tons ‘ambles’ by and, for a few moments, over the pup, who seems fine after the ordeal.”

San Simeon elephant seals

AARP members can read the full article here.