Great for children aged 0 and over

Children of all ages are welcome, there's something for everyone!

We at Cottontail Creek Ranch liken our offerings at the ranch to a 'bare boat charter', where guests choose their own activites and we make recommendations.

Tennis, swimming, hiking, fishing, biking bocci ball, cornhole, horsehoes, tetherball, treehouse and just relaxing are all enjoyed by kids and grown-ups of all ages!

Minimum age children can ride

8 and over

Activities

hiking, picnics, outdoor play area

Games

horseshoes, badminton, ping pong

Environment

Cottontail Creek Ranch recieved full Organic Certification on the growing grounds this past year.

Our cattle are sustainably raised by rotating, to protect the soil and the plants, and the ranch uses the 'Reduce, reuse, recycle and repurpose' motto on everything.

We compost and give food scraps to the chickens, and we always work to keep our carbon foot print minimal and try to minimize our plastic use.

We also have four photo voltaic energy systems with battery back-up to assits our energy use.

Lastly, we also follow the motto: 'Think globally act locally' to help protect the coast and ranch lands.

Community

Cayucos Land Conservancy, San Luis Land Conservancy, Rangeland Trust and Cayucos School have been the main civic focus.

Susan was on the CLC board until 2022 and now is a Meritus board member. She volunteers by leading walks and organizing fundraisers.

The ranch donates a 'play day' to the local schools for auction fundraisers and all the ranch guest donate to SLO Tourism fund to protect the open space.

Conservation

On 1 July, 2009, Cottontail Creek Ranch started a voluntary land conservation fund and all ranch guests are asked to make a charitable donation of approximately two per cent of their rental rate to the fund.

During their visits, Cottontail Creek Ranch guests often express their extreme enjoyment and delight at the wide open spaces and working agricultural landscapes, and we hope the area will retain this magical quality for their return visits.

The creation of this fund gives our guests and others an ongoing opportunity to be part of conserving the natural beauty of the area.

A directed giving fund has been established with the San Luis Obispo County Community Foundation whereby guests make their donations to a specific earmarked fund called the 'SLO County Tourism Land Conservation Fund'.

In turn, the Community Foundation will make grants, as directed by Roger and Susan Lyon, to non-profit land trusts or public agencies for land conservation projects in San Luis Obispo County.

Initially, planned grant recipients from the fund are the Land Conservancy of San Luis Obispo County, the California Rangeland Trust, the American Land Conservancy and the Cayucos Land Conservancy.

Each of these land trusts has a proven track record in this County.

Why two per cent?

Two per cent was the most obvious number because guests staying in all of SLO county, except for this north rural area, are charged in addition to the 10.5%, bed tax and a two per cent BID (Business Improvement District assessment for marketing).

For more information on the how and why, please read 'The Making' below.

Our goal is participation in making a difference

Cottontail Creek Ranch is participating by matching our guests' two per cent donation, and anticipates and invites other businesses in the County, not only the lodging industry, to choose to participate and share our excitement about the possibilities ahead.

The goal is to generate sufficient funds to make significant donations to conservation projects in San Luis Obispo County.

We hope you will join us in continuing to make a difference, to preserve this pristine region of California for generations to come. Your donation is tax deductible and soul enriching.

SInce 2009, over $55,000 in grants have been awarded

Grants have been made to the Cayucos Land Conservancy, California Rangeland Trust and the Land Conservancy of SLO County.

Cayucos Land Conservancy's mission is to complete a green belt around Cayucos and they hold separate conservation easements on both the four-mile coastal bench north of town (Estero Bluffs) and the two miles across Highway 1 (Maino Ranch). They are actively buying hillside lots from willing sellers to complete the greenbelt.

The Land Conservancy of SLO County works to conserve land throughout the county.

CTR's mission is to conserve the open space, natural habitat and stewardship of California's ranches. http://www.rangelandtrust.org

The making of the SLO Tourism Land Conservation Fund

When booking a stay in the county, guests pay the lodging rental rate and an additional 10.5% transient occupancy tax, which goes into the County general fund.

For the last several years, the hospitality industry has proposed forming a countywide business improvement district (BID) to require hotels, bed and breakfasts, and vacation rentals to collect an additional two per cent of gross revenues.

Although collected by the County, this two per cent assessment is to be used by the BID exclusively to promote additional tourism in the County.

The rationale was that other counties and cities were charging upwards of 13% to their guests and SLO could not compete for tourist dollars.

Many hospitality business owners in the County, particularly small operators in the north county, objected to this additional tax/assesment. Part of the objection was that the type of marketing contemplated was not geared toward promoting the very small rural businesses and the reason their guests come as well as return to the area.

Through the debate about whether the needs of these small rural operators would benefit from the BID, Susan came up with a rather novel marketing idea: Since the tourist industry benefits from the spectacular open spaces and scenic beauty of the area, why not earmark a significant portion of the proposed BID funds to a land conservation/stewardship fund that would be used to make grants to land trusts in the area which are working to preserve these open spaces.

The BID could then promote the fact that the hospitality industry businesses, which benefit from tourists coming to enjoy these wide open spaces, actually put their money where their mouths are.

While there seemed to be interest in the concept, the rural operators (including Cottontail Creek Ranch), felt that there was not enough commitment by the drivers of the BID formation committee to merit participation in the BID.

By mutual agreement, the rural north county was excluded from the BID formed by the County in May 2009. Effective 1 July 2009, the two per cent BID assessment has been collected by operators in the unincorporated area, except for the rural north county.

Because of the lengthy debate and subsequent solution, Cottontail Creek Ranch guests have the unique opportunity to participate in preserving San Luis Obispo County by way of their charitable donation to the SLO Tourism Land Conservation Fund.

The Lyon family is proud to continue a rich ranching history.

For approximately 60 years, the ranch was operated as a dairy by Swiss-Italians who, like many others in the area, immigrated here in the late 1800s to find new opportunities on land that reminded them of their homeland.

They hand-milked their cows in the ranch barns and separated the cream from milk in the small building adjoining the barns.

The product was taken by wagon to creameries in Cayucos and Harmony where it was made into butter and cheese, and loaded onto ships at the Cayucos wharf.

When regulations made small dairies obsolete on the central coast, a shift was made from milk cows to raising beef cattle on the ranch.

Since then, the Lyons have had success with raising high quality, healthy Hass avocados, Valencia oranges and beef cattle.

In 1999, Cottontail Creek Ranch added another branch to their operation, a luxury ranch vacation rental.

The ranch house has been a successful addition toward achieving viable sustainable agriculture and your hosts, Susan, Kristopher and Michael Lyon, invite you to join them for a getaway that will demand an encore!