Bishop's Peak, in San Luis Obispo

San Luis Obispo is a college town near the coast, between Los Angeles and San Francisco.  Bishop's Peak is a popular hike up one of the mountains that overlooks the town.

Hiking trails in California can be hard to find- they are often tucked away at the end of a winding residential street somewhere, and this one was no exception. 

Here's the first view of Bishop's Peak from near the start of the trail:

The lower parts of the trail went through a couple of wooded areas, I loved these trees:

 

Another view of the peak:

 

The middle portion of the trail wound around the mountain, and along the way had great views of the town:

 

Another view of the top of the mountain, before we turn the corner and begin the steeper part of the climb:

 

The town is surrounded by mountains and hills.  It's a very pretty (and expensive) place as development has been restricted:

 

I don't know what this mountain below is called, but we had great views of it on the way up.  We could see it also had a trail, it would be fun to do that one sometime too:

 

Parts of the trail, it switches back several times:

 

 

The upper part of the climb is on hillside that looks like this:

 

This is just before we start the more barren switchback on the top third of the trail:

 

There's the summit up there:

 

Someone up ahead on the trail.  It's a heavily travelled trail, we were passed by many people heading back down, and by lots of people more athletic than us on their way up!  Several runners, which would be very strenuous; it's not a difficult climb but it is long and relentless, with uneven footing in many places, and lots of mud today as it's been raining for a week:

 

It became very overcast just near the top, so most of my photos weren't great, but this one of the rock with the town in the distance came out nicely: