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For hikers who would like to experience the feeling of a walk along the upper edges of Montecito, where you can look down on the coastline from a lofty perch nearly 1200′ in elevation above the valley floor, the route up to the Buena Vista lookout provides just such an experience.
Closed to through traffic in the 70s, a trail everyone can enjoy: hikers; trail runners,; mountain bikers; and by horse. The grade is gentle and the views superb.
A picturesque canyon with loop possibilities and great views from the crest make this a wonderful hike.
Vista Del Mar provides an access point to the beach between Gaviota and San Onofre. A narrow trail leads down to the bluffs. Below is a small quarter mile long beach that has a very remote feeling to it.
San Onofre Beach gets more use than other beaches along the Gaviota coastline so it isn’t as uncrowded as some of the other beaches; nevertheless it rarely has more than 15-20 people here at any time. There are wonderful walks in either direction at low tide and it is 3 miles in either direction to Arroyo Hondo or Gaviota State Park.
The trestles at the mouth of Arroyo Hondo Canyon are very picturesque, as is the beach below. The climb down to the beach is only the start of the adventure.
There’s just a wisp of a line across the ridge line anymore, a long thread of a line that suggests more of a past than it does the future. This is the Arroyo Burro Trail, once the main passageway into the backcountry for the Chumash. It is a trail rich with history.
Today there are large homes jutting out on either sides of San Roque Canyon and what is left of the pastoral life is comprised mainly of avocado ranching. But as you enter the canyon and begin to walk along the creek’s edge the feeling of being in a very special place still remains.
It is a bit of a hike down to the beach on the rough trail, but once you are there you’ll find a long stretch of wide open sand and plenty of places to set out your gear for the afternoon.
Like El Capitan, Refugio Beach State Park has lots of space for picnicking and playing in the surf, and the water is usually calm, making this a relatively safe place for the kids to play at the ocean’s edge.
