Pismo Preserve — Attraction in Grover Beach

The Discovery Day hike today was fantastic & free. BTW- We have been longtime local contributors to support the development of the preserve, but this is the first time we had the pleasure of hiking here! We were picked up by the last free Shuttle right from the front of Lido's Restaurant at the Dolphin Bay Inn (a kind sponsor) & we were the only ones in the vehicle. The driver was super-nice & so were the volunteers at the Preserve. We almost made it to the Avila Lookout, but we had tons of great views of Ocean vistas all thru the hike. The hike for us out of shape types took about 2.5 hours. We then regained out calories at Lido's with an extensive dinner including a bottle of Champagne, Whale watching from our ocean view table, & Choc. Mousse for desert! An amazingly fun afternoon for us local Shell Beach residents. Thanks to all who sponsored the event!

From the KCOY TV News Website on June 10th 2017: "

Lifestyle "Pismo Preserve discovery day draws hikers from near and far"

The Pismo Preserve was open to the public for the first time as part of a discovery day. (Michal Colaianni/KEYT)

PISMO BEACH, Calif. - In the hills above Pismo Beach, hikers were given the chance to get a new and unique view of the Five Cities.

The Pismo Preserve was open to the public to hike the more than 11 miles of trails unsupervised for the first time Saturday.

"This is the first chance for the public to get out and enjoy these trails on their own," said Kaila Dettman, Director of the San Luis Obispo Land Conservancy. She says while this area is known for the beach, they noticed a need for hiking grounds.

"There's no upland hiking and mountain bike trails, so we saw a real need for there to be access for people to get up in the hills and into nature."

"I'm always amazed by all of the different little vistas around every corner," said Dyan Theobald, the conservancy's Stewardship Manager. "It is really nice to see the general public come out here and enjoy, especially after all the hard work the community has put into this project."

The conservancy raised more than $10 million to buy the preserve property from the previous owners, who were considering developing the land. Organizers hope to have the preserve fully up and running in 2018.

The preserve will be open for two discovery days a month until it opens. The next chance to check it out is June 25.

"All you have do is hop on a free shuttle," Dettman said. "It's a short drive from City Hall, and in south county we have some stops as well. Then anyone can come out here and hike, and mountain bike, and enjoy themselves."

For more information regarding the Pismo Preserve, click here.

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Horse people beware. Our group made reservations 2 weeks in advance and emailed several times to be sure we had spots for our planned ride with three horse trailers loaded with 5 horses. We even stopped at Office Depot to print one of our reservations when we realized one was missing because we read on their website that if you park without a reservation a boot will be placed on your tire.

Upon arrival the attendant, CJ, walked up and told us, "I don't have spots for you". Wow! Did not ask to see our reservations. Those were the first words out of her mouth. I responded that we had reservations. She said that the spots were already taken. Which we could clearly see. My response was that we will wait for her to put the boot on the tires. We had a long drive and horse trailer trouble to solve and horses that wanted out. She said she had no idea about a boot and proceeded to tell me she could call the police but that would take at least an hour so we should find another place to ride. I was in disbelief and expressed it. Her response was that it is just a trail ride. Again wow. Then CJ said I was being being mean and she couldn't deal with me. Really? You know what's mean? My bets on allowing five ladies, who very rarely get away, research amazing rides for our trip from OC and Tehachapi, load up five horses and haul all the way here only to discover they don't actually check reservations. It seems to me that the folks running this treat it as their own private trail system.

Old reservations were on the dash of both trucks made in the name of the lady on the horse photos we saw on the web, Beverly Poorman. More like Beverly PoorManners.

Moral of the story; unless your connected don't waste your time and certainly don't expect upstanding horse...

A fantastic series of mountain bike trails where the occasional hiker may be allowed, should they be able to deftly maneuver out of the way of mountain bikes. The grounds of the reserve itself, the volunteers and staff, the design of the trails, and the thoughtful planning of resource management at the reserve, are all five out of five stars. Regrettably, it is not possible to give negative value ratings for the park patrons... Which would clock in at a - 2 stars... Although there is ample and clear signage regarding right of way and which users yield to who, this seems to have evaded the notice of the majority, but not all mountain bikers. I can count on one hand the amount of times a mountain biker has yielded to myself and my family while on the trails. The parking lot is a sorry state of affairs as well, the finest behaviors of humanity are on showcase... My personal favorite is the amount of time people will anxiously wait behind your car as you have just returned from a long hike, will aggressively push you to "get out of the way" even though it has been less than 30 seconds since you arrived at your vehicle... I am not the only one, I have watched people heckle moms who are putting their kids in car seats, and asking them when they will be done so they can have their parking spot. Unless I am missing something, we are at the park to in fact go for a walk/run / bike ride / horse ride/general nature exploring, well there is plenty of parking just across the freeway, a less than one quarter mile walk on good sidewalks, it appears to be too much for many of the patrons to walk that extra quarter mile. Get off your A$s people! Get out of your vehicles!!! It can be done!!! I...