Driving back to the Santa Barbara Airport after attending a craft beer festival with some friends in Paso Robles, I decided to stop at the Dinosaur Caves Park just a few miles from my destination and stretch my legs a bit. The name is a bit misleading, but still an interesting landscape to explore. Apparently, local businessman had a large metal-framed dinosaur built here in the 1940's as an attraction. A staircase inside lead down into one of the large sea caves along this section of coast. The community never really liked the site of the dinosaur and the largest of the sea caves eventually collapsed, leaving the site in some distress. In early '90's, the city purchased the land and eventually turned it into a small park adopting the current name based on the history.
The park is small, but offers some amazing ocean views. After parking my rental car, I start walking around the paved and gravel trails taking it all in. It's a bit brisk this morning, but the interesting vantage points keep me warm enough. The park is built atop sea bluffs, into which the battering waves have created a number of caves and in addition, left tall jutting islands out just past the shoreline. The number of sea birds here is impressive. Pelicans, gulls, and many others seem to like to perch in mass atop the various rock formations. In addition, I see a number of small chipmunk like creatures in and around the flora atop the bluffs as I leisurely stroll along the path. There is just so much life here. It's truly amazing.
Finally, I decide that it's time to move on and return to my car. I need to get some food and return the rental car before my flight takes off a couple of hours from now. This was a worthwhile stop though. Nothing spectacular, but certainly enough to make someone take a slight detour to see.
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