The famous route 1 from Los Angeles to San Francisco is full of surprises, so we discovered. One of the biggest astonishments was the enormous sand dune area some 4 hours north of Los Angeles. The Oceano Dunes Natural Preserve is stretched along the coast and is easily reached via two entrances. You just have to know where to go.
The first one is the Oso Flaco Lake (literally ‘skinny bear’ in Spanish – and no you won’t encounter those over there, nor fat ones). The entrance of this area is near the super tiny and cute town of Guadalupe. If you want to experience a bit of small town California feeling – I highly recommend you to rent this AirBnB. It’s such a (pink!) hidden gem, with enormous owls in the evening flying by and loads of colourful hummingbirds sipping their sugary water in the morning.
But enough about Guadalupe, let’s get back to the lake adventure: firstly you need to drive the Oso Flaco Road that leads all the way to the entrance through large celery and broccoli fields – yes, you can tell the crops by the smell of it. Once you park your car (inside for $5,- or outside for free), the trail towards the sea begins in at wooded area lakeside. Someone placed a boardwalk in the beginning and that was a great idea, for both nature lovers and anglers.
It’s an easy walk from there on – about a mile long and it continues all the way to the ocean dunes. Along the road you’ll probably spot some beautiful butterflies, a lot of migratory waterfowl and perhaps a lizard or a rabbit or two. Although it was autumn, the native dune plants still seemed in full bloom, not a bad sight either.
Once you’ve made your way through the dunes, you’ll be rewarded with an empty and pristine beach, very cool! Oso Flaco is really gorgeous due to all of the different present animals and plants. But if you’re more up for a real desert experience, you might want to enter the dunes via the other – that is the northern – side.
Drive the route 1 up to Oceano, turf left at 22nd street and drive all the way to Pacific Dunes Ranch & RV Resort. Over here you can park your car outside of the RV area and walk up to the left upper corner of the park. Once you’ve left the last RV behind, you suddenly stand in an enormous desert, as pictured below. It’s almost as if you’ve walked through some magical door and ended up in a forsaken piece of Saudi Arabia. Really cool.
Bring a little picnic along with you and enjoy the silence of the golden hills. And don’t get lost!
