There is a version of Pismo Beach that only shows up in September and October. The wind flips offshore and stays there, the ocean reaches its warmest point of the year, and the evenings go long and gold.
A Pismo clam takes about seven years to reach legal size. It spends most of that time buried in wet sand, siphoning plankton out of the surf, doing very little that a person walking the beach would notice.
The best beach day of the year in Pismo Beach usually lands in October. The afternoon wind that pushes towels around all summer eases off, the ocean holds its warmest temperatures of the year, and the sand in front of the pier has room to spread out on a Saturday.
About twenty minutes before the sun drops, the light here stops being ordinary. The bluffs turn copper, the wet sand goes gold and mirrors the whole sky back at you, and the grass on the hills above town lights up.
If you’ve ever wondered what that’s actually about, here’s some information to appreciate one of our local critters.
Women are booking more trips with each other than they used to. Not weddings, not bachelorette weekends with a schedule and a theme, just a group of friends deciding to be somewhere together for a few days.
Inland is roasting. Pismo Beach isn’t. While the valley climbs past 100, the coast is sitting in the 70s with a breeze off the water, which is the whole reason this town has been a summer escape for a century.
National Pollinator Week, held during the last full week of June, is the perfect time to appreciate these critters. Here is a quick guide to who they are, where to find them, and how to help.
Far too many people treat Pismo Beach like a day trip. Sure, a nice day includes a visit to the pier, exploring the tide pools, and eating a basket of fried clams, but that car ride home misses the best parts of town. Especially if it’s before the sun is all the way down.
Something’s different downtown this summer. The energy is up, the sun has been out, and Pismo Beach just claimed the title of #1 Beach in California from USA TODAY 10Best.
