Cayucos State Beach is a 16-acre protected sandy beach in the California state park system in the town of Cayucos on the Central Coast, valued especially for swimming and surfing. Its setting also reflects a far longer human history along the San Luis Obispo coast. Long before the park was established in 1940, the Chumash inhabited this region, settling the area approximately 10,000 to 11,000 BCE, and a large village stood south of Cayucos at Morro Creek. The beach’s importance lies in preserving an accessible stretch of shoreline for recreation within a landscape shaped by deep Indigenous history and the enduring attraction of the Central Coast.