Blood, Trauma, and Biohazard Cleanup in Cayucos, CA

Cayucos is an unincorporated community and census-designated place on California's Central Coast in San Luis Obispo County, strung along Highway 1 on Estero Bay just north of Morro Bay.

Its name is the Hispanicized form of a Chumash word for "kayak" or "canoe," recalling the boats the Chumash used to fish the rich kelp beds offshore, and the town took the name from Rancho Moro y Cayucos, a Mexican land grant awarded in 1842.

The town was founded in 1867 by Captain James Cass, a sea captain who settled on 320 acres, opened a shipping business, and built a store and warehouse; the townsite was formally laid out in 1875.

Cass built the Cayucos Pier beginning in 1872 and lengthened it to 982 feet by 1876 so ships could dock directly; rebuilt in 2015, the wooden pier is still the town's centerpiece for fishing and sunset watching.

Cayucos had a population of 2,505 at the 2020 census, down slightly from 2,592 in 2010.

Cayucos has roughly 1,300 households averaging under two people each, and with a median age of about 60 it is a notably gray, retiree-heavy beach town.

The community fronts Cayucos State Beach, a wide sandy stretch of Estero Bay popular for surfing, swimming, and tidepooling.

Cass's original warehouse still stands in town and serves as the Cayucos Veterans Memorial Hall, the community's main gathering hall.

Cayucos keeps a laid-back "cowboy beach town" character rooted in the cattle ranches that spread through the hills behind the shore in the nineteenth century.

Just up the coast lie Estero Bluffs State Park and Harmony Headlands State Park, two of the least-developed stretches of public coastline in San Luis Obispo County.