Little Patch of Earth

Friday, August 21, 2026

Beach Walk 16: Carpinteria State Beach to Rincon

There were just a few good tides in August. The August 11 -1.2 low tide was at 3:40am so I was risking getting wet leaving at 6am! I met my niece and friend Mandy to walk from Carpinteria State Beach to Rincon Point. I shouldn't have worried about the tides because the conditions were beautiful.

Toward Rincon

Toward Carp State Beach

The beach was wide and the tide was SO low. We reached Tar Pits Beach at about .8 miles and then about a mile in we hit a snag at the Seal Rookery. Here we were met by a very determined woman who wanted us to go up on the bluff, so the seals had the beach to themselves. The county does close the beach during the winter and spring months for the seals. Concerned citizens had posted their own signs even though there were no seals on the beach (and it isn't even the season for them). We thought this was overly cautious, but respected her request. So we did some rock scrambling up the bluff to walk along the bluff for .3 mile.

Mossy rocks at low tide

Around 3.2 miles in we passed the houses at Rincon which are each quite different from each other. After we rounded the point past ther houses and we headed up the path to the Rincon Point parking lot.

Thanks to Mandy for getting up so early to walk this "southern" most section with me! It was at least 3.5 miles of unique beach-- 74 km (46 miles) down!

Carpinteria Salt Marsh

Carpinteria State Beach

Carpinteria Valley Museum of History

Tomol Interpretive Playground
Carpinteria Bluff Nature Preserve

Tar Pits Beach

Friday, August 14, 2026

Beach Walk #15: Arroyo Quedmada Lane to Cañada San Onofre

The next section I walked was a -0.1 tide on Saturday July 18. My friend Shelley and I started at Arroyo Quemada Lane between Refugio and Cañada San Onofre at 7:30. We started this walk at the eastern side because I felt better about walking up the path at Cañada San Onofre. Getting to this beach involves turning left off the freeway 2 miles north of Refugio State Beach. It is a very bumpy, poorly kept road that ends in a gate. About 600 feet before the gate, there is a large gravel parking area. After crossing the railroad tracks, there is a path off to the left that descends very steeply down the bluff to the beach at the beach wall. Shelley was a trooper!

Entrance to Beach at Arroyo Quemada Lane

Once we were down on the beach, it was a beautiful day. We headed toward Gaviota and had plenty of beach to ourselves. After this, there are a number of houses on Arroyo Quemada Lane with beach access.

We reached the bridge at Arroyo Hondo around 2 miles in. I tried to visit this one back in 2020 during our second Summer of the Beaches but the path down seemed far too steep for kids. Maybe we needed to find this ladder? (If not, which beach is this?)

Arroyo Hondo Bridge

Ladder?!

Of course, we saw some beautiful tidepools along the way as well as some fishermen.

There were a few places where the beach was narrow and would be inaccessible at a higher tide. We also had to use the rocks to cross at the points a couple times, one around 3.4 miles.

We crossed a huge amount of rocks at the mouth of Cañada del Molino. It was dry at this time of year, but might have been hard to cross in the winter/spring. We saw so many incredible rock formations!

I knew we had reached the right spot when we saw the next small rock grouping as well as the beach hut! The path up is on the left (west) of the rock grouping.

San Onofre Beach

It is also possible to do this walk in reverse starting at Cañada San Onofre. Going North on 101, you take the Maricopa exit, then head south 1 mile to the turnout.

Entrance to San Onofre

San Onofre Parking Area

Thanks to Shelley for joining me for this section! It was 4.4 miles of unique beach-- 68.5 km (42.6 miles) down!

Gaviota State Beach

Canada San Onofre to Gaviota

Arroyo Quemado Lane to Refugio

Friday, August 7, 2026

Beach Walk #14: Arroyo Quemada to Refugio Beach

The new moon week of good tides continued with a -0.7 tide on Friday July 17 at 6:45am. My friend Paige and I set out from Arroyo Quemada Lane between Refugio and Gaviota. This involves a tricky left turn off the freeway 2 miles north of Refugio State Beach. (If you immediately reach a gate, you are on the wrong end of the lane.) It is a very bumpy, poorly kept road that ends in a gate. About 600 feet before the gate, there is a large gravel parking area. After crossing the railroad tracks, there is a path off to the left that descends steeply down the bluff to the beach at the beach wall. Paige had hiking shoes and was better off!

Path down to the beach

Beach wall

Once on the beach, we headed for Refugio State Beach. In this week of heat, the temperature was perfect. There is so much beach when the tide is this low. There wasn't much tar, seaweed or rocks on this stretch. It is pretty incredible to contemplate how much concrete it took to make these walls and the logistics in getting it all down to the beach.

The tidepools are incredible at these low tides along these beaches above Goleta because there are less human impact. We saw lots of birds but few people.

Thanks to Paige for walking this section with me! It was 2.5 miles of unique beach--61 km (38.2 miles) down!

Refugio Nature Program

Refugio State Beach

Refugio to El Capitan

Friday, July 31, 2026

Beach Walk 13: El Capitan to Haskell's Beach

The longest segment of the summer is the one from El Capitan to Haskell's Beach. The tide was very low this day (second lowest of the summer -1.6). Ted and I set out from El Capitan early on July 15 at 5:30am. Parking was the hardest part since the day use area wasn't open yet. We noticed a few cars parked across the freeway, but we opted for parking at one of the group sites closest to the stairs down to the beach. (These stairs don't actually fully go down to the beach anymore.) We saw some fisherman here but afterward. We didn't see anyone until we were close to Haskells Beach.

It was about half a mile to the place we stopped on our Refugio to El Capitan walk. The point here has a lot of large rocks to scramble up or maneuver around. Just past this there was a ton of seaweed to traipse through. Another notable feature in this first section is the seawall that protects the bluff from erosion (the road and train tracks are pretty close.)

The tide pools were best in the next section around 2 miles into our walk with sea anemones, muscles, snails and sand crabs. We even spotted some type of squid. Gato Canyon has lots of smaller rocks to navigate about 2.5 miles into the walk.

If it wasn't such a long walk, we might have explored this tunnel. (The land on the bluff above this is all very private with no official beach access, so probably not.)

There are several huts on the beach for residents. One is around the 4 mile mark with a lawn and palm trees (and a port-a-potty).

The only other tricky part was just over 4 miles in at the creek at Dos Pueblos Canyon. We had to wade here but found several beautiful abalone shells. (A co-worker of Ted's reports that there is an abalone farm here that pulls water into use and releases it back out to the ocean adding to the creek flow we waded through.)

We finally finally spotted some people near Naples Point around 5 miles into the walk. When we rounded the point, we could see Haskell's Pier in the distance.

Thanks to Ted for walking the long stretch with me (and getting up at 4:30 to do it before work). This bring the total miles to 35.6 (57km).

El Capitan (this post needs an update now that it has reopened)

Haskell's Beach

Refugio to El Capitan

Ellwood to Haskell's Beach

Wednesday, July 29, 2026

Beach Walk 12: Santa Barbara Wharf, Harbor and Goleta Pier

Since the walks I have planned are not quite 50 miles in total, I walked all the public wharfs/piers/breakwater paths too! In truth, they did not add very much to the total, but more friends is more fun! These are all mid-day walks since the tides are no issue!

On Monday July 13, I walked the Santa Barbara Wharf from the dolphin fountain to the end with my daughter E. We saw lots of tourists and sea gulls! It is .4 miles (.8 round trip) and was a quick add.

On Thursday July 16, I walked the Goleta Pier solo. I spotted a few fishermen and not much else. This is only .3 miles.

Goleta Pier looking at UCSB

On Thursday July 16, I met my friends Jane and Annie for a walk of the breakwater at the Harbor. Jane had even brought a birthday sash for our selfie. The tide does matter here are we came close to getting sprayed a few times. We walked the whole path and even made our way to the end of the plank path toward the end (it is narrower and doesn't go as far as it used to). This was just over .6 miles.

Over all these added 1.3 miles to the total. Thanks to E, Jane and Annie for walking with me! This brings the total 28.5 miles (45 km). I met my goal and now I am headed for miles!