You see the hill from S. Bay Blvd., the main thoroughfare that connects Baywood-Los Osos with Highway One. Turning the car onto to Parkview and into Morro Bay State Park, the hill disappears behind a ridge. Veering right, the peak re-emerges, then fairways, greens and Sunday afternoon golfers. It’s Morro Bay State Park but we didn’t come to drive and putt.
We came to hike to the top of Black Hill, the second of SLO County’s Nine Sisters. Tucked in between Morro Rock and Cerro Cabrillo, Black Hill is second in line from the coast and the second shortest of the nine volcanic peaks, just a bit taller than Morro Rock.
I wanted to see the view from the top, of course. But I also wanted to see some evidence for the origin of its name. I’ve read that the name Black Hill comes from naturally occurring tar pits somewhere on the hill.
It’s a short, easy hike through stands of Monterey pine, oak and eucalyptus to the summit. And views of the coast, Morro Bay, Morro Rock and the inland hills are magnificent. They give me just one more of, well, at least a hundred reasons why I love the Central Coast. However, no trace of naturally occurring oil seepage.
But as befits our modern lifestyle, plenty of oil in the petroleum products all around me. It’s in the road I drove on to get to the trail head. In the tires of my car. Certainly in the fertilizers used to keep the golf course green. In the plastic of my water bottle. In the rubber of my hiking shoes.
We certainly benefit from all of these petroleum products. But the benefits come with costs. Petroleum combustion adds excessive CO2 to our atmosphere. Plastic products like grocery bags (now banned in California) litter our oceans, harming marine life and taking hundreds of years to decompose. Oil spills damage sensitive marine ecosystems. Even natural oil seepage washes up on beaches to create malodorous stains that take even more petroleum products to remove.
A non-renewable resource with a host of problematic environmental effects. Created by ancient organic material under massive ocean pressure for millions of years. Yes, Black Hill was underneath an ancient sea at one time. But no oil on the hill.
Petroleum and oil everywhere except where I wanted to see it. At the top of Black Hill I gazed toward the west down toward Morro Bay. And what did I see? Cars, roads, gas stations…
