Bruce Murin: Field of Lights at Sensorio
Saturday, February 22
In May of 2019, the Bruce Murin: Field of Lights at Sensorio opened in the rolling hills east of Paso Robles, California. The Field of Lights is 58,000 solar-powered fiber optic lights covering 15 acres. Even though we live nearby, we had never visited the display even though everyone we knew who had gone said it was quite spectacular. It was originally scheduled to close in December, but due to its popularity was extended to June of 2020.
When my brother and his family visited us at Christmas, they asked if we had seen it as they had read an article about it in the Los Angeles Times. When we said no, they asked if we were interested and we said yes so we made plans for them to visit in February to celebrate my birthday and visit the Sensorio.
My brother Doug, his wife Janis and my nieces Becky and Mandy arrived mid-afternoon on Saturday, which allowed us time to visit for a while before we left for our visit to the Sensorio. Our friends who had been before said the best time to get there was just before sunset so Doug had bought tickets for 5:30 which was just before the 5:45 sunset.
We arrived just after 5:30 and to our surprise, we found a large crowd there and we actually had to wait in line to get in. Despite being open since last May, it still remains popular. It was a cold evening (at least for our part of the world) and we were glad we dressed warmly. We walked into a plaza area where they had a couple of food trucks and tables set up if you wanted food, but we thought it was too cold to sit outside and eat. They also have a VIP patio where you can sit and look at the lights as you eat a dinner included in the VIP tickets, but we didn't think it was worth it to us.
We started following the path that led through the lights, but the lights were not on yet as it was just starting to get dark. Despite the cold, it was a beautiful evening with the rolling hills and oak trees silhouetted against the deep blue evening sky that was just starting to turn orange as the sun went down.
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| This is kind of a plaza area where you enter. There were food trucks, places to sit and even a band playing music. |
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| The sky was darkening as the sun went down, but the lights weren't on yet as we started down the pathway through the display. |
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| The lights weren't on yet, but you can see the thousands of translucent bulbs and how much area they cover. |
As it got darker, the lights started to come on, dimly at first and then with more and more intensity and colors. The lights constantly, slowly changed colors forming random patterns and color combinations. As it got darker and you couldn't actually see the ground, it looked like a river of flowing and changing lights.
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| At last as the sun set, the lights began to come on. The light display constantly changed with the colors looking like a wave as the night grew darker. |
This area is way out in the country and very dark at night, and even though the pathways are lit enough to see where you are walking, you can't see anybody's face so at times we had a hard time figuring out where anyone was. We walked all the way around the 15 acres and really enjoyed the light display. Pictures don't really do it justice as they don't convey the immensity of it and constant change of colors. All in all, a great evening and well worth the visit.
We finished up around 7:30 and we were all hungry so on our way back to the house, we stopped and had a great Mexican dinner with Doug and Janis treating us in honor of my birthday (my birthday is actually the 26th, but close enough). Thank you Doug and Janis.
After having our dinner, we returned to the house and I had another treat waiting; a birthday cake that Val had made that was delicious. By the time we had our fill of cake, we were all thoroughly stuffed. We spent the rest of the evening talking, but we didn't stay up too late as we wanted to get an early start tomorrow to head over to the Blossom Trail.
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