Cayucos (Spanish for “Canoe”) is an unincorporated coastal town in San Luis Obispo County, California, along California State Route 1 amongst Cambria to the north and Morro Bay to the south. The population was 2,505 at the 2020 census, down from 2,592 at the 2010 census.

The area was arranged by the Chumash people nearly 11000 to 10000 BC. It included a large village to the south of Cayucos at Morro Creek.

The first European house exploration of Alta California, the Spanish Portolà expedition, camped in the vicinity of today’s Cayucos on September 9, 1769. Coming from the previous campsite close Morro Bay, Franciscan missionary and expedition aficionada Juan Crespi noted in his diary that “In the four hours that we traveled, making at the most three leagues, we encountered eight arroyos by which the water from the mountains runs to the sea, along whose edge we traveled. We halted at the eighth watering place in a moderately expansive valley, into which enters an estuary fed by an arroyo of great water coming from the mountains.” Crespi translator Herbert Bolton noted the camp location as Ellysley Creek (further along the coast to the northwest), but the savings account sounds more later than Cayucos.

Cayucos is named for the cayuco, a Spanish post for a little canoe. It was named after the canoes used by the Chumash people to fish in the bay, particularly in the wealthy kelp beds just north of the current Cayucos pier. The town took its make known from the outdated Rancho Moro y Cayucos, a Mexican land agree awarded in 1842 that includes the present area of the town.