Our task for ourselves today was to attempt to see some of the Pacific coast between Santa Maria and Santa Barbara. This sounds much easier than it is.
Our journey started with a westward drive down the quite dry Santa Ynez River from our camp spot at Rancho Oso. For the first time in more than a month, we spotted fog between us and the ocean. There was no miserably hot weather here today. It was very nice for me but Peggy runs somewhat colder and she was in long pants and a coat.
Part way down the River, we passed Lake Cachuma (actually, a reservoir) and continued northwest to a small town called Los Alamos where we turned off on CA-135. It was our intent to eventually hook up with CA-1 but it seems there is no exit for CA-1 from CA-135 if headed north. We had passed it by a considerable margin before your narrator and navigator figured it out and we probably went another 5 miles on the beautiful four-lane highway before being given the opportunity to turn around in Orcutt.
Backtracking, we found an exit to CA-1 and followed it into the Vandenburg Air Force Base where we were about as welcome as turds in the pool. There were no roads to the coast that we could take across the Air Base. We skirted Vandenburg going south until we got to Lompoc, famous for being the locale where all of Nixon’s indicted and convicted co-conspirators spent time at the Federal Penal Country Club and Golf Course and also to having what may be the world’s largest deposit of diatomaceous earth. DE is a big player in the swimming pool filter market.
In Lompoc we found a road that ran toward the coast. The road runs along the southern bank of the Santa Ynez River but, since the Santa Ynez has no water in it, the part near the ocean is a large tidal marsh. At the current flow rate, not a drop makes it to the sea but once it starts raining, if ever, I imagine the low sand berm between the river and the marsh will be blown right out of the way and things will be back to formerly normal. There is a little county park near the ocean called, strangely, Ocean Park. We fetched up in the bird watching platform and spotted a myriad of species, all of the visible ones eating.
After a stroll at the park, we tried going south but immediately ran into some more Vandenburg but when we pulled off to turn around, we discovered what has got to be the world’s loneliest Amtrak station. There were three people fooling around on the tracks but they couldn’t have been waiting for the train because we had just seen it go by from Ocean Park about 30 minutes earlier. The train tracks go across Vandenburg but the trains do not stop inside the base. I rode this stretch on a train from San Diego to Eugene a few years ago and the scenery was wonderful. Motorists need not concern themselves with this spectacular coastal scenery because there aren’t any roads unauthorized persons can access.
Undaunted, we drove back into Lompoc and headed south toward Gaviota on CA-1. About halfway between towns, we found a side road going toward a place called Jalama, 14 miles distant on the coast. The road is curvy and does a lot of up and down but the scenery is pretty good. It seems we were passing through the Jalama Ranch which must be a big honker because, other than a 25 acre Santa Barbara County campground, we never left the ranch property. Jalama campground has about 60 spaces but it is dry camping with the exception of a dozen or so spaces with 30 amp power. It is right on the ocean and, if we had a much smaller and lighter trailer, we would be delighted to spend a few days there. The difficult access road keeps tourists to a minimum.
We left Jalama and drove the 14 miles back to CA-1 where we continued south, hooked up with 101 and returned to our campground. We have done almost the same drive when it was raining and the country reminded me of Scotland or Ireland, two places I have only seen in pictures. It was emerald green. This time, we passed through at the end of a long, hot summer but the scenery is still amazing despite the grass all being yellow now.
There’s pix. Click here