RANCHOS TO CASTLES: A TOUR OF SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY

Our 2011 conference celebrated the wonderful variety of SLO County’s contrasting sites—from 19th-century Californio ranchos to the Hearst Castle to a local winery and its vineyards. This still semi-rural landscape has a long history of compelling landscape development, beginning in 1772, when Padre Junipero Serra founded Mission San Luís Obispo de Tolosa—the fifth established in Alta California by the Franciscan Order.

Image: Mission Plaza by J. Williams