What Are Some Fun Family Activities in Paso Robles, California?
I remember the first time we passed through the small city of Paso Robles with our children and needed to make a "pit stop." We chose Downtown City Park on Spring Street, because we had no idea where to go. It wasn't very exciting. Today I have a whole list of places I enjoy where I would take children for that "pit stop." If we were just passing through on the way to somewhere else, I would take them to Sculpterra Winery and Sculpture Garden, Fat Cat Farm, or Eagle Castle Winery. If I could spend a lot of time, I'd take them to the Salinas River, by way of Larry Moore Park. And if they needed an inspiring indoor activity, I'd take them to Studios on the Park downtown.
If you were vacationing here with children, there also many places within a short drive of Paso Robles that a family would enjoy. I will save those for another article. But walking trails, lakes, the ocean, a zoo, and a skate park are all to be found within half an hour of Paso Robles.
Pictured above is part of the herb garden at Fat Cat Farm that adjoins the picnic area. I took the picture in winter when most herbs are not in bloom.
Rest Stop Activities in the Paso Robles Area
When you all need to stretch your legs and find a restroom
When I used to travel with children, about every two hours we would need to stop. I, as the driver, needed a break. My children also needed some walking or running. Of course, it was also important to have a restroom, and maybe even a picnic area, available. Most of my suggested activities have restrooms and picnic areas. Eagle Castle and Fat Cat Farm can be seen and take care of your reststop needs in an hour or less. Parking is easy, and both are right on Highway 46 West between the 101 Freeway and Highway 1 on the way to Cambria, Hearst Castle, and the Monterey Peninsula. Although neither of these places sell fast food, Eagle Castle sells some pricy cheeses and non-alcoholic beverages in their tasting room.
If eating is important to you, there is fast food available near the Highway 46 W exit off 101. The fastest access is to the McDonalds at the Chevron station just east of the freeway. If you want a lot of variety, it can be found in the Target Center, which is accessed a short distance west of the 46 W and 101 intersection. You turn left at the first signal and it will take you to several fast food outlets and restauants. I would get the fast food and use one of the picnic areas at the place you choose to visit. Of course, if you brought your food, there's no problem.
If you need to gas up, you will find an Arco station (cheapest gas if you pay cash) just east of the 46W exit off 101. As I write this, there is a Jack in the Box and a mini mart there. You will also find a Chevron Station with a McDonald's adjoining it. Right behind McDonald's is an Urgent Care Center, just in case you should need one.
Pictured above is the entrance to Eagle Castle.
Fat Cat Farm
It's got herbs and animals.
Mom and Dad will enjoy walking through the herb garden where most herbs are labeled and you can picture how they might look in your own garden. If you read the article I linked to above on Fat Cat Farm, you will get an idea of what's there, but it's been renovated again since that was written. It's getting the love it needs now. From spring to summer the garden will feature something blooming. I even found a few blooms in December.
The owner has a lovely selection of herbs and herbal gifts for sale in the nursery part of the farm. Restrooms and the picnic area are easy to find and access. If adults are interested, there are two wineries that offer tasting in the tasting room, which doubles as a gift shop.
The grounds are small enough to see everything in a few minutes, but interesting enough that you might want to linger longer -- especially if you or the children like to watch the animals. There is a goat pen and another pen (at time of this writing) with chickens. I believe I also saw rabbits. You can read all about Fat Cat Farm and take my video tour here.
If you are traveling on the 101 Freeway through Paso Robles, Fat Cat Farm is only about three miles west on Highway 46 West (2485 W Hwy 46)-- the way to Cambria and San Simeon's Hearst Castle. It will be on the left side as you go west and will be a little past Eagle Castle and almost across the street form Niner Estates. . Go through their gate and into the parking lot. There may also be a sign for Lone Madrone by that same gate. If you get as far as Booker Road, you've gone too far. You will find a good place to turn around if you go a bit farther to almost Vineyard Drive where you will see a place to turn right into a parking lot with the sign Farmstand 46 on a windmill. You can stop for a picnic to take back or just turn around and head back the way you came for about a mile. Shortly after you pass Booker Road, you will see some vineyards to your right and some trees. The gate for Fat Cat Farm is in the middle of the trees . The picture below shows what you will see if you are approaching Fat Cat Farm from the west after you pass Booker. Once you are parked, you will see the entrance that is pictured above.
(Tip: I was checking out Farmstand 46, which sells take-out gourmet foods, today. They had some quiche slices that looked tempting, but the $8.00 a slice was more than I wanted to pay. I didn't see anything but cookies that were less. The large cookies were $1.75 each. There are also at least two wine tasting rooms on this property, if you are interested.)
The Sign for Farmstand 46 as You Approach Vineyard Dr from the East
Approaching the Entrance to Fat Cat Farm from the West
Eagle Castle with Kids -- More Than Wine
What will interest children in a place for wine tasting?
Eagle Castle is two buildings. The most prominent one is the castle itself, where the tasting room is located. But the tasting room is only a small part of it. Across from the tasting room is the winery itself, and unless you are interested in the machinery of vintners, you probably will want to stick with the castle. The castle is entered from Anderson Road which goes north from Highway 46 W, about three miles or less west of the 101 freeway. You may be on top of it before you see it, but you will pass the castle first, and you will see that. When you do, slow down and start signaling for a right turn. Almost as soon as you turn, you will see the Eagle Castle Entrance. Take it, and follow the road up the hill to the parking area for the castle. I will be illustrating this section with products I have made from photos I took at Eagle Castle. If you decide you want any of them, just follow the links to my Zazzle store to purchase them. I will make a small royalty if you do. Below is the entrance to Eagle Castle's driveway.
This puzzle shows how the outside of the castle will look as you approach it, and might be a way to relive your visit when you get home. The moat doesn't go all the way around, but if your children have never seen a real castle before, they will definitely get the idea of what a mote looks like. They will probably want to look at it closely. 
Once you have climbed the stairs, all of you will have stretched your legs a bit, and you will be ready to enter those huge doors. This is who will greet you inside.
After you've met the knight in shining armor, you will find yourself in the foyer. Just to the left you will see the tasting room, where you will find this.
A sign on the piano states that if someone knows how to play the piano, he or she may. There is even music provided from a simple beginner book to a hymnal. The trick here is that those who play the piano do know how. I'm sure any children who pound on it unsupervised, as children sometimes do if unsupervised, will wear out their welcome fast. It's probably better to wear out the children first before you take them in there.
If you are still in the foyer, and you want to use the restrooms, they are straight ahead. Women on the left wall, men on the right. When you have finished, your children will want to go up those spiral steps to explore the upper terraces. You can go out the doors on the second level and walk all the way around the front to the other side. There is a great view of the surrounding vineyards and farms from there. If you are lucky, there may be a few tables set up around the terraces where you can eat some lunch, if you brought it. There are usually some tables on the first level. If your children are like mine, they will be happy to explore as long as you let them. When I visited duriing the summer, I did see a mom heading up the spiral stairs with the young children while Dad was sampling the liquid wares in the tasting room. There's something for everyone at Eagle Castle. You can take a video tour of the castle with me and see a few more pictures if you follow the link to my article on Eagle Castle. It's nice to check out places before you visit them.
Sculpterra Winery and Sculpture Garden
This is designed for strolling, and seeing great art.
Eagle Castle and Sculpterra are each unique in their own way. Eagle Castle will take your children back to sights (if not the sounds) of the Middle Ages. Sculpterra is rather like a giant outdoor art gallery of sculpture. Some are large granite animals, and some are animals and even a mermaid, done in bronze. There is more art, and on Sunday afternoons, live music, in the tasting room. There are also unique gifts for sale.
In my mind, Sculpterra is more than a pit stop. You can do it in an hour if you hurry, but when I go, I like to wander through the vineyards, as well as the sculpture garden. There is a picnic area in the woods in back of the tasting room to the left, and there are tables everywhere on the patios, intended for those who are tasting. When the musicians are playing, the music is piped outside so that you can also enjoy it from the patios. Occasionally there are private parties going on, so you will want to make sure your children don't crash any that happen to be in progress. Take them to the woods if they want to run, or to the vineyards in front.
Sculpterra is on the east side of Paso Robles on Linne Road. Linne is an extension of Niblick Road, and Sculpterra is a few miles past Creston Road on Linne. Take my video tours of Sculpterra and find out more with close-ups of the sculptures on Sculpterra's own web site.
The sculpture in the foreground is "Golden Hooves," by John Jagger. I took the picture on my visit in February, 2011.
More Art at Studios on the Park in Paso Robles
Watch the artists work.
Studios on the Park is one of my favorite places in Paso Robles. It is very friendly toward children, and even offers workshops for them. These workshops need to be signed up for ahead of time, though. The schedule is on the Studios on the Park website, where you can also find directions and hours. I wrote an article about Studios on the Park right after I discovered it, that will give you an idea of what you might see, and, possibly hear, if you are fortunate enough to arrive during an event. Events are also annouced on their web site. But you don't need an event to have a great experience. It's less crowded when no event is scheduled.
When you read my article, keep in mind that artists come and go in the studios. Some have been there since I've been frequenting the studios, but they often play musical studios, moving to new studios and getting new studio partners. What you can count on, though, is that some artists will always be working in their open studios, and you can watch them and ask questions. There will always be exhibitions in the galleries and everywhere you look you will see paintings, photographs, mixed media works, crafts, jewelry, and more. There's even one studio with real printing operations going on.
Studios on the Park is a great place to find unique gifts. If anyone in your family is interested in art, this is a great place to visit. It might even awaken a creative trait in one of your children to see how many kinds of artisitc expressions are possible. Admission is free. The only thing you might find inconvenient is that you will need to ask one of the artists or the manager for a key if you need to use a restroom. You do need to superivse your children well, since they will be surrounded by expensive art objects. Most will be hanging on walls, but the crafts room is full of tempations to touch.
If you have older family members who want to spend a lot of time looking and some younger children who would do better playing outside, the city park is right across the street and there is a great playground there. Perhaps one parent could take the little ones to the park for part of the time. If you get hungry, there are restauants surrounding the park.
The picture in this section is a ribbon winner in a juried exhibit last year. It's called "Bedtime for Dragon" and was created by Kathy Batdorf, who gave me permission to share it. Kathy is a fiber artist whose work I love. Her work is often on display at Studios on the Park.
Larry (Lawrence) Moore Park and the Salinas River Trail
Better plan to spend a few hours for this.
I've saved Larry Moore Park for last because it's probably the place the kids and you will enjoy most if you want more than a pit stop. There is a restroom and a playground and picnic tables, in case you brought a lunch. You could just stop and eat and let the children play for a bit. But that might be a bit of a waste of such a great place -- especially when there is water in the river.
The Salinas River Trail, and the river itself, are accessed from this park. One could spend an hour walking the Salinas River Trail -- or longer. If you did not bring your lunch, you can take the trail north, toward the bridge, under the bridge, and out on the bridge to the Wendy's next door to the bridge. If you walk along the sidewalk behind Wendy's you will also find a very good and reasonable Chinese restaurant, China Gourmet. It's one of our favorite places for lunch. They also have an early bird dinner that will feed two, that's supposed to be for one.
If you have an hour or two, depending on how fast you walk, you can walk the whole length of the Salinas River Trail and back. If you are slow, or want to stop and explore in the riverbed itself, add a lot more time. I have written extensively on the Salinas River and this park online, since I spend a lot of time there. One thing you should understand is that most of the year the river runs under the surface and you don't see it. You might want to read The Two Seasons of the Salinas River , which describes in words and pictures how the river looks and behaves during the wet and dry seasons. I will also post the link to a video below that shows you an awesome experience I had at the river on January 21, 2012. This video will give you a taste for both seasons of the river at once, since it was dry when I started my walk to find water, and when I was almost ready to give up, the river began to fill and come right towards where I was walking in the riverbed.
Although I often walk in the riverbed by myself, I probably shouldn't. Be sure you have a cell phone on you if you try it. I recommend that, as with all walking, you walk with at least one other person if you go into the riverbed. The area is natural and supposed to be a public wilderness area, and there might be snakes or other wild animals around, though all I've ever seen are birds and rabbits. The bunnies come come out at dusk, and the jackrabbits cross the riverbed about that same time. There are also some homeless people who may live in the riverbed from time to time, as you will see in the video. I have never seen anyone there, but I only go in the daytime. In the daytime, many people and dogs can be found walking in the riverbed when it is dry.
There is a lot of driftwood in the riverbed. In the video you will see a picture of a makeshift structure made of what was found in the river. At first I thought if must be the home of a homeless person. But then I remembered how my son and his friends liked to use logs and branches when they were available to build forts, treehouses, etc. So it's possible that some kids were just being creative. Even so, during the rainy season, even if the river looks dry, it can fill fast and have a fast current. So if your children go into the riverbed, go with them. If you watch the video, you will see how fast it happened when I thought I was in a dry channel. Also, you do need to watch for and be careful of poison oak. If you can't recognize poison oak in all its seasons, you should read my article on poison oak. It's a visual tour, and many examples came from this park. If you stay on the trail, you will probably be OK, but sometimes in spring, new growth intrudes on the trail. If you recognize it and keep clear of it, you will be fine.
Larry Moore Park and the Salinas River should not be missed if you come to Paso Robles with children and have even a couple of hours. When I used to drive to Washington State with my children, we always looked for places to stop that were more than restrooms and fast food places. One favorite rest stop for them was in the Rogue River State Park. We could park, and we would walk down to the river and eat a picnic at the tables in the campground. It was special to us, because we did not live near a river back then. It's exciting to see a real river when you've only read about them. The best time to see water in the Salinas River so that it looks like a real river, is from February to June. It's not guaranteed, but is most likely during those months. Just as we stayed less than an hour at the Rogue River stop, you can do the same at Larry Moore Park. It's not far from the 101 Freeway, and services and food are nearby.
You can find it best if you are heading north on 101 and get off on Spring Street. You turn right at the end of the ramp and go over the Niblick Bridge, through a stop light, past Walmart on the right, and then you turn right on South River Road. Pass the Walmart parking lot on that side, and turn right at the first street past the Walmart entrance, which is Riverbank. Follow it to the end. You will see a lot of large rocks and an entrance to the Salinas River Trail. It will go trhough the park beside the river, curve right to meet a wall and a bank of trees (near the tree in the picture near the title of this section). At the end of that path, you turn left and walk with park on your left side and a wall separating you from the Kohl's and other stores to your right. Soon you will see the Niblick Bridge ahead. The trail goes under it, and you can even leave the trail and go into the riverbed where to explore if you want to. If you stay on the trail, it goes beside the north end of the river and ends by some apartments. Then you can go back the way you came, or stop off on the Niblick Bridge access and get a bite to eat. Besides the places I've mentioned so far, you have the deli in the Albertson's store and a Taco Bell. If you cross NIblick Road to the Walmart center, you have a McDonalds and a number of other places. If you choose to do that, you can access the trail again at the back of the Penny's parking lot on the West end.
The Salinas River Fills
I witness an amazing sight.
I was in the right place at the right time. I was searching to see if water had come back to the river after a heavy rain the night before. I had about given up when the river found me. I was glad I had my camera to record it. Unfortunately the sun was bright and I couldn't always see my camera screen, so I lost what I was trying to shoot sometimes. There are also a few seconds when the wind noise is annoying. These things pass quickly, so I hope you will hang in there and watch the river fill with me.
I Hope You Have Found an Activity Here Your Family Will Enjoy
Choose art, nature, history, or just exercise.
There should be something here for every taste for those who don't want to have to pay admissions for expensive attractions. My family always preferred FREE. I always wanted experiences that would help my children grow in some way when we made our stops. So we tended toward parks, or monuments when they were available. What was frustating was not really knowing when just what was available nearby when we wanted to stop. You could drive right by Paso Robles and not know there was a river there to explore. You would probably not stop at Fat Cat Farm unless you knew what was inside that you can't see from the road. Eagle Castle is easy to see from the road, but you might not realize that your children might find it interesting. Unless you'd heard about Sculpterra, you'd probably not see it, since it's a bit off the beaten track. Neither would you realize what a wealth of art experiences were under your nose across the street were you to stop at city park downtown to stretch your legs.
If you come to Paso Robles with your children, as I once did, you won't need to worry about how to find a fun place to stop. Just bookmark this page, and get off the freeway in Paso Robles at either Highway 46 W or Spring Street. You can't go wrong.
