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!

Related Posts:

Carpinteria Salt Marsh

Carpinteria State Beach

Carpinteria Valley Museum of History

Tomol Interpretive Playground
Carpinteria Bluff Nature Preserve

Tar Pits Beach

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!

Related Posts:

Gaviota State Beach

Canada San Onofre to Gaviota

Arroyo Quemado Lane to Refugio

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!

Related Posts:

Refugio Nature Program

Refugio State Beach

Refugio to El Capitan