Lopez Lake - Arroyo Grande loop

Today's ride is the result of a suggestion from one of the LBS dudes and my own interest to explore. The fella at the bike shop suggested Lopez Lake as a destination but that would have only given me about 30 miles for a, back and forth, round trip. After studying the map I realized that Arroyo Grande could work out as a longer round trip that constituted a loop. I had a plan.

The trip out of town was fairly easy, down the hill on Monterey Street, a left on Johnson Avenue and then another left on Orcutt Road, which turned out to be a wide open road with spectacular views as seen in the photo above and the below two. 

Along the way I passed a fellow biker who, upon seeing my NCC kit, declared himself to be a Springfield area transplant to the area. I believe that he was also a UMass and Hampshire alum. I've had many interesting conversations with folks because of that jersey. The below photo taken from Orcutt Road shows that this is wine country too. There were a number of wineries and tasting rooms along the way. 

Orcutt Road t-bones at Lopez Drive where I headed to the left.

More beautiful scenery along Lopez Drive in the above and below two photos.

It's not just vineyards around here, along the way was a large orange grove too.

The first glimpse of Lopez Lake. I didn't know it at the time but the land mass in the middle is an island as may been seen from some of the following photos. 

This photo looks back at the road already traveled. 

Further up along the lake, above. 

The above and below photos were taken from the same spot with the above one looking back toward the headwater of the lake and the below photo showing a marshland separated from the lake by the road. 

More beautiful cycling road along and beyond the swampland but I soon reached the end of the line with Lopez Lake and headed back down Lopez Drive into Arroyo Grande then up Route 227 to San Luis Obispo. Because of time constraints I put the camera away except for the below photo that looked interesting to me at the time.

All in all a very nice ride.