Montaña de Oro ("Mountain of Gold" in Spanish) is a state park in Central Coastal California, six miles southwest of Morro Bay and two miles south of Los Osos. It consists of 8,000 acres (32 km²) of cliffs, seven miles of shoreline, sandy beaches, dunes, coastal plains, streams, canyons, and hills, including the 1,347-foot (411 m) Valencia Peak. The park has many hiking, mountain biking, equestrian trails and horse campsites, as well as a primitive campground located across from Spooner's Cove, a popular beach. The Bluff Trail is an easy and popular trail along the scenic coast. Trails lead to the summits of Valencia Peak, Oats Peak, and Hazard Peak. Native Americans Five hundred years ago, when Europeans first arrived on the California's central coast, they found it inhabited by the Chumash and Salinan people. An estimated 20,000 to 30,000 of them lived in small villages spread over a territory which extended from Morro Bay south to Malibu. Although the Chumash depended heavily upon the sea, they also drew on many other sources for food, clothing, and shelter, and were part of a large trading network. The Spanish Explorers who visited the Montana de Oro area in 1542 recorded that the Indians were attractive, friendly people who paddled out to greet them in canoes. In 1769, Don Gaspar de Portola marched his troops north from San Diego to establish new territory for the king of Spain. With the beginning of the Mission period, many died from European diseases to which they had no immunity. History after 1842 The property rights for Montaña de Oro State Park land area changed hands several times after California became a territory of the United States. Part of the park was the Rancho Cañada de los Osos that Victor Linares had been granted on December 1, 1842 by Governor Juan B. Alvarado. The rancho lay west of San Luis Obispo in the Los Osos Valley. Victor Linares sold his rancho to James Scott and John Wilson who also bought the adjacent Rancho Pecho y Islay in the Irish Hills to the south of their Los Osos rancho and combined them in a new 32,431 acre grant, Rancho Cañada de los Osos y Pecho y Islay from Governor Pio Pico in 1845. It was used mostly for grazing sheep until 1892, when Alden B. Spooner, Jr., leased the land he later purchased around Islay Creek. He