Harmony Headlands State Park - Harmony, CA - California State Parks

Harmony Headlands State Park preserves 784 acres along California’s Central Coast between Cayucos and Cambria. Setting out from Highway One, a gradual 4.5-mile lollipop loop through the park crosses a coastal valley to reach picturesque ocean bluffs. The easy bench-lined hike ascends about 85 feet up a wide dirt road before descending 135 feet to the coast where a footpath can be used to explore the rugged oceanfront.  Begin hiking from a small parking area on the west side of Highway One between the coastal communities Cayucos and Cambria at the north end of San Luis Obispo County. Follow the wide dirt trail, a former ranch road, west across a creek. Look down in the water and you will probably spot a few frogs and turtles. Proceed west up Headlands Trail, which gradually makes its way up a grassy valley used as a cattle ranch for over a century starting in the mid 1800s. The land was slated for residential development, luckily unsuccessful, before the acreage was purchased by the American Land Conservancy and deeded to the State of California to create Harmony Headlands State Park in 2008.  After 0.4 easy miles you will reach a trail split. A spur to the right heads up to an old ranch bunkhouse and a porta-poddy (there is not a bathroom at the trailhead). The small bunkhouse is currently used as a staging area for park staff and docents and is not generally open to the public (unlike the porta-poddy).  From the split, continue left up Headlands Trail. The wide dirt road passes through thistle and stalks of black mustard. A few dead trees with bleached white trunks stand out from the surrounding landscape. The trail maintains a gradual ascent up a green valley between round 200-foot tall ridges covered in grasses and sagebrush. After 0.75 miles, look for a shallow man-made pond on the left side of the trail that becomes a muddy depression in drier months. Just beyond the pond, you will pass a bench on the right side of the trail, the first of three benches along Headlands Trail.