Beach Walk #5: Ellwood Beach to Haskell's Beach

The week of epic tides continued  -1.2 tide on Thursday June 18, so I coordinated with my husband Ted to walk before work. We started at the end of Coronado Dr (if I did it again I would set out from Santa Barbara Shores Dr) around 7AM. After half a mile on Ellwood Bluff, we found the path down to the beach. I didn't locate the Wind Phone since we were on a schedule. 

Ellwood at Low Tide

Tide Pools

Mossy Rocks

We turned to the west and headed up the beach towards Haskells near Bacara. Even at high tide, this may have been accessible, but it was easy on this day with such a low tide. There were many rocks but not a lot of tar or seaweed. We did notice many sections of fencing to protect the cliffs (and maybe pipeline) from storm surge. We did walk beyond Haskell's to scout out the next section for the next really low tide!

Storm Surge Protection

Restricted section

Thanks to Ted for making time to walk this section with me! It was 1.5 miles of unique beach--19Km (12miles) down!

Related Posts:

Ellwood Beach

Ellwood Open Space

Haskell's Beach

Beach Walk #4: End of IV to Ellwood Bluffs

 

Another very low tide was on June 17. Greta and I set out on a walk from the end of Isla Vista (where I ended with G last week) and headed to the bluff at Ellwood. At -1.6, we didn't get wet at all and had a lovely walk with a lot of rocks, but not much tar. Our only problem was when we realized one set of keys for a car were at the wrong end of the walk, so we had to go back the way we came. 

Coal Oil Point at low tide

One interesting item we found on the beach was a large metal pillar. It is leftover from the Ellwood Oil Fields from the 1930s. The City of Goleta does work to remove hazardous objects from the beach since these oil fields were not shut down properly when they closed. 

Thank you to Greta for walking and talking early with me! 17 km (10.8 miles) down....

Related Posts:

Isla Vista Beaches 

Isla Vista Parks and Open Spaces

Ellwood Beach

Ellwood Open Space

Beach Walk #3: Butterfly Beach to Look Out Beach

The lowest tide of the summer seems to be on Tuesday June 16, so I met my friend Margaret at 5:15 AM. We set out from Butterfly Beach in Montecito with the goal of walking to Lookout Park in Summerland. There are several points such as Fernald Point that would have been a problem at higher low tide, but the -1.8 foot tide was perfect. We stayed dry the whole way and saw beautiful moss on the rock at Hammonds Beach. I predicted this would be about 2.5 miles of unique beach from California Coastal Trail, but the path up to Lookout Park is hidden when walking south and we overshot the path, walking an extra half mile. The gate to the park was locked at this time of day so we had to park in Summerland and walk around the gate. We never saw the sun and were back home before 7:30! 

Fernald Point

Trying to show the beautiful moss at Hammonds Beach

Thank you to Margaret who got up super early to make this beach walk happen! 14 km (9 miles down)! I somehow ended up walking 10 miles this day because all the friends had time on this particular day....

Related Posts:

Butterfly Beach

Hammonds Beach

Mirmar Beach

Lookout Park

Beach Walk #2: Goleta Beach to Isla VIsta

The next segment from Goleta Pier to the end of Isla Vista was broken up into sections because I have a few people who would like to do a smaller section with me. The more the merrier! The California Coastal Trail has been helpful in planning this one (Santa Barbara Section 7).

 On June 8, my mother and I set off from Goleta Beach Pier to Campus Point just after low tide. The tide was +0.8 on this day. Goleta Beach had a lot of debris including a large amount of rocks at the beginning of the grassy area. We chose to go across the rocks to stay dry (but that didn't last long!).  We did have to wade at the large rock at the end of Goleta Beach (it would be fine at a 0 or negative tide). The beginning of Campus Point Beach has quite a bit of seaweed which made us move up to the higher part of the beach to avoid the water. It is exactly a mile to the steps up to the bluff. After that it was an easy walk to Campus Point, where we walked back along the bluff. The buff path is closed in many areas because of erosion and threat of erosion. The beach portion was 1.25 miles. 

Grandolly 

Goleta Beach

Steps to Campus Point

On June 9, I set out with my daughter G to walk the beach from the end of Isla Vista (Camino Majorca) to Campus Point and back. The tide was not a very low one (+1.1) and this is a very narrow section of beach, so we got wet. We were sad to see that several of the steps we went down during our beach summer 2020 have eroded and are unusable, but enjoyed the caves again.  I was glad to have brought birks as this was easier to walk barefoot. Close to Campus Point we enjoyed sea anemones and lots of pelicans at the point. G also explained to me that this location was called the toilet bowl because of how the water swirls through with the waves. On the way back, we tried to walk the beach, but the tide had risen, so after 1.3 miles we went to up the stairs at Camino del Sur to walk the rest of the way back to the car. The beach was far tar-ier than either section leaving Goleta Beach.

Broken Steps

Campus Point

Caves

Thanks to Dolly and G for braving the waves. 10 km (6 miles down)!

Related Posts:

Goleta Beach

Goleta Beach Playground

Campus Point 

Isla Vista Beaches 

Isla Vista Parks and Open Spaces

Beach Walk #1: Goleta Beach to Hope Ranch Beach

 

To start the journey, I chose a more predictable section of beach and a lower tide. Based on my estimations and the website of the California Coastal Trail, I predicted this was about 3 miles. Jennifer and Crystal set off with me on June 5th just before low tide (this one was 0 feet) from Goleta Pier at Goleta Beach.  

It wasn't long before we hit our first challenge. The Goleta Slough was deeper than expected. I have crossed it plenty of times when it was low, but this day it was calf deep and we needed to take off our shoes to get through the water. After regrouping and drying our feet (and adding a towel to my list of items to bring), we continued on. There are several places where you need a tide like this (0 feet) or lower to navigate around the points. Several times we had hustle to get around the point when the tide was out or scramble over the rocks. 

More Mesa Beach is known for being a nude beach, but during this early part of the the day, we only saw one other person (clothed). There are some impressive "rock formations" along here that are actually made from tar. Hope Ranch Beach was 3.2 miles from our start! 

Challenge number 2 came at the end of the walk when we tried to exit Hope Ranch Beach. There isn't a clear way to exit and we had to wait for a car to come through the gate to leave when they came through. There was a lot of laughter as we dashed to and through the gate and a moment where I thought one of use would make it leaving the others trapped. We all made it our and a prearranged ride picked us up. (I texted from the beach which had coverage but I didn't have coverage on the road outside).

Goleta Beach (past the slough) on a typical June Day

Thanks to Crystal and Jennifer for being adventurous and joining me for my first walk! 5km (3 miles down)!

Related Posts:

Goleta Beach

Goleta Beach Playground

Hope Ranch Beach

More Mesa Beach 

More Mesa Preserve

Birthday Beach Walks

There's another big birthday coming this year. If you have been following me for a long time, you know I had a whole list of things to accomplish when for my 40th birthday. I may do some of those same things (but more ;) this year. One of the things I did was to train and do a sprint triathlon--not quickly, but I did it! I trained mostly by myself and when it came to my next big birthday, I chose to walk 45 miles with friends in the days around my birthday. Much more fun! 

These the things on my bucket list for the year: 
1. Walk or run 500 miles this year 
2. Give away 50 things
3. Try 50 new recipes

4. Read 50 books 

5. My big plan is to walk 50 kilometers of coastline with friends! (Measured by Strava/Garmin)

I have been thinking about this last one for months. It much harder to plan than one would think. You need a low tide (less than 1 foot is best and a negative tide is better) at the right time of day (and hopefully a friend available to walk)! Maps of the area don't give milage for the coast and the right distance (probably 3-5 miles) is important. I tried to have ChatGPT plan this for me and found a task to simply could not do.  It wildly underestimated distances and told me to walk at 2:30 AM. It has taken planning and I still will probably find surprises along the way. Last week I finally found a helpful website (after much research and planning) from the California Coastal Trail. 

While this is still a work in progress, these are the segments, I have planned so far:

1. Gaviota to Canada San Onofre Beach (July 2)
2. Canada San Onofre Beach to Arroyo Quemada (July 4)
3. Arroyo Quemada to Refugio
4. Refugio to El Capitan (July 1)
5. El Capitan to Haskell ?? (planned for July 15)
6. Haskells to Ellwood (June 18)
7. Ellwood to IV Beaches (June 17)

8. IV Beaches to Goleta Beach (June 8 and 9)

9. Goleta to Hope Ranch Beach (June 5th)
10. HR to Arroyo Burro (June 19)
11. Arroyo Burro to Ledbetter (June 20)

12. Breakwater 
13. Ledbetter to East Beach (maybe 2 parts)
14. East Beach to Butterfly Beach (June 30) 
15. Butterfly Beach to Lookout Park (June 16)
16. Lookout Park to Padaro Lane (July 3)

17. Padaro to Carp State Beach 

18. Carp State Beach to Rincon

As a mom, I will still be working on some of the Choose Your Own Adventure items that we haven't done before and hope to post that too (as the gals get older, it gets harder to coordinate this)!

Gaviota May 2026

Related Posts:

40 Year Old Bucket List

40 Year Birthday Update/ 6 Month Update
Yearly Reading Challenge 2020-2024 and 2025 and Beyond

Screenagers 5/3/26

Screensavers is a documentary created by physician and parent, Delaney Ruston. It is designed to bring together teenagers, parents, teachers and community members to inspire conversations about what healthy technology habits look like today. The movie examines smart phones, social media,  video games and overall screen time in today's teens. Not content to just state the problem, Delaney focuses on finding balance in teen technology use both personally and at a systemic level. The film is designed for to spark conversations between parents and children regarding digital literacy and healthy habits. (63 mins)

 Screenagers Trailer

More info

https://www.screenagersmovie.com