Gentle Incline Hikes in SLO County
San Luis Obispo county is a hilly area with some steep morros (volcanic mountains). Here are some hikes you can do that have 15% grade or less!
Wonderful scenery on the Cal Poly campus (parking is $12 or free on weekends). You can do a 4-mile hike (out and back) with under 10% grade, if you take the loop counterclockwise and then turn back. Otherwise, the whole 5.5 mile loop, minus the mountaintop detour, is below 15% grade.
Fantastic shady, flat bike path that leads through forest, past a coffee shop/market, to Avila Beach. You can do a 3 mile hike (1.5 miles in, and back)
Wonderful wooden boardwalk over the dunes, with gorgeous views of the sea! Plus eucalyptus forest. You can walk 3.4 miles (1.7 miles to Pismo Pier, and back)! Flat.
Lovely, flat, 6-mile (3 miles there, and back) walking path through the dunes, Cloisters Playground and Park, a tunnel of cypress trees, along the estuary on the Harborwalk, through Morro Bay town to Tidelands Park.
Beautiful trail slightly above the lake with sweet pea flowers in spring! Slightly hilly but never more than 8% grade.
Shady 1.5 mile loop trail that winds gradually up a hill, with good views to the next hill, and awesome spooky oak forest with lichen, Spanish moss, and yellow grasses. 12% grade or less.
Start at gorgeous South Palisades Park and walk past ocean lookouts all the way to Smuggler's Cave, where you will find an epic view. 3.4 miles total (out and back). Mostly flat, but 10% grade at the Shell Beach Bluffs Trail section.
Two-mile-long trail that starts inland, leads over a slight hill, and ends at a rocky shoreline. High winds funnel into this area. The incline is 8% at most.
Lovely path beside a eucalyptus forest, on both sides of the creek, with workout stations, in a residential neighborhood. You can walk two miles total. Completely flat!
A pretty trail to walk. The rolling hills and perfect sky look like Microsoft's desktop image "Bliss." The wide, hard-packed dirt trail is half a mile long, and flat.
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