Nearby: Baywood Lighted Boat Parade

Lighted boats fill the Baywood waterfront for the back bay’s signature night

In Baywood Park, across the back bay. The Baywood Lighted Boat Parade returns Sunday, September 6 from 5 to 9 PM at the Baywood Pier, the Los Osos side’s beloved end-of-summer spectacle: kayaks, canoes, SUPs, sailboats, and small craft of every kind strung with lights, gliding along the Baywood waterfront and competing for prizes. The organizers’ own billing calls it what some consider the best little community event ever, and the back bay at dusk makes a strong case.

The September date is no accident on two counts. Per the organizers, early September brings the coast’s nicest weather, a lighted-boat night without the December freeze, and the tide cooperates this year: NOAA predictions put a 5.9-foot high tide at 6:35 PM, right in the heart of the parade window, floating the fleet on full water. Participants should watch the organizers’ page for launch guidance; per their standing instructions, a loading zone opens by the Baywood Pier, and boaters can also paddle over from Cuesta Inlet, Pasadena Point, or the State Park Marina.

Watching is as much the event as floating: the pier and the 2nd Street waterfront give shoreline viewers the whole glowing procession with the estuary behind it. Baywood sits about 15 minutes around the bay from Morro Bay. Check the organizers’ page for 2026 entry details and any companion events that afternoon. The back bay setting is what makes the whole thing possible: this arm of the Morro Bay estuary runs shallow, warm, and glassy at high water, the same qualities that make it the county’s favorite beginner paddling water, and one evening a year, its stage.

For more back-bay happenings and Nearby events, see what is coming up on the event calendar.