The Notch

The Notch sits at 706 feet along the San Luis Obispo North Coast Byway (Route 1), facing 210 degrees toward the southwest. The land drops 401 feet within 600 meters of the overlook, giving a steep foreground below the viewpoint. Octopus Oak, another viewpoint on this route, is visible to the west-southwest at 0.7 miles and 655 feet elevation. San Luis Obispo lies 8.6 miles north, with Santa Maria 18.6 miles southeast and Lompoc 37.5 miles south-southeast. On the byway itself, Octopus Oak is the previous lookout and Avila Overlook follows next. Sunrise and sunset times shift across the year: around the June solstice the sun rises at 05:49 and sets at 20:21, while at the December solstice sunrise is at 07:08 and sunset comes at 16:55. The equinox times fall in between, with sunrise near 06:51-07:07 and sunset near 19:01-19:15.