Coal Oil Point and Sands Beach

Santa Barbara, California Print   Leave a comment

Description

There are many different things you can do at Coal Oil Point!
Or instead, you can take the pathway to the east, past tall Pampas grasses that catch the sunlight, on a short beautiful walk to Del Playa Park in Isla Vista, where UCSB students lay out in the sun to work on their tans.
Or you can descend the wooden stairs down to the sand when the tide is low. My son likes to build sand castles here and watch the oil ooze out from the rocks. You can walk along the beach to the east if the tide isn't too high and see the beachhouses above. They look like they are about to fall down the cliff! Students party hard in these Isla Vista beach houses.
The walk most people do though is the clifftop path to the west that leads to a magical place, Coal Oil Point! The wide expansive clifftop makes you feel renewed from the very beginning of this walk. There are little benches positioned in perfect spots where you can take in the views of the cliffs. Surfers and joggers will pass you by. As you walk, UCSB Faculty Housing, a damp misty place, will be on your right. You will pass through eucalyptus groves and beside some lovely plants and flowers. In Spring it is particularly pretty here. Along the way, you will get to some breaks in the trees where you can see surfers waiting for the waves at Yucca's, a slow, mellow surf spot. I've seen dolphins swimming here, to my delight! Continue on and you will see the ruins of an old bath house that the wealthy oil families used. Nowadays, the ruins are covered in graffiti. The path veers to the left and you come to an area where you can look out over Jailhouse, another surfspot, and white cliffs in the distance. Here you can see surfers catching waves pretty close up. There are lovely cactus growing on the cliffs.
Continue to the right and you pass through a gate. Then you are at Sands Beach at Coal Oil Point! Explore the white soft dunes that are decorated with patches of yellow and purple wildflowers. KIds love to play on these dunes and watch the surfers walk by. The Devereux Slough, a lagoon, will be ahead of you, fenced off. Notice the huge white oil tanks near the lagoon. These were built in 1929 to hold oil drilled at Ellwood and are still in use today. At Coal Oil Point, the near-extinct Snowy Plover bird is being preserved. These are cute small chubby birds that feed on beach hoppers (that's an insect, not your toddler!) and kelp flies that are abundant here because of the kelp that is continuously washed up on shore. The fenced off areas are there for them to roost and breed in peace. The snowy plovers had died out in this area until they were protected. Now there are 400 that feed and rest here, the largest group of snowy plovers in America! Please don't bring dogs to the beach (which scare the plovers) or leave trash (which attracts crows that eat the plover eggs). In March, you can see the tiny baby plovers that have hatched! Call Jennifer Stroh, docent program coordinator, at (805) 880-1195 and you can be led to the best place to see them.
Coal Oil Point is a popular spot for surfers. Devereux, on the right, is a popular winter surf break for longboarders. See them with their wetsuits from head to toe (boots, hoods, and all!) They are keen to catch waves no matter the cold! Sands, on the left, is a windy high-tide break that draws crowds of happy surfers. If you want to surf here, check the water quality before you go.
There's a little bench carved into a bent Monterey cypress. Sit and watch for a while!
Coal Oil Point is interesting because oil and natural gases are emitted from the area, as much as 5,000,000 cubic feet of natural gases and 7,140 gallons of oil a day! Scientific studies have shown that half the oil that lands on Los Angeles beaches comes from Coal Oil Point! According to Venoco, the oil company that operates the rigs offshore, the prolific oil seepage here is a natural phenomenon. There are two stories one hears: many people in Santa Barbara say that the oil and natural-gas odor (it sometimes smells so bad you think you're in a tire shop) are due to natural seepage. Other people, like a professor I talked to who smells it all the time from her home at Faculty Housing said, "It's the drilling out there. Call and complain- they are killing us!" Who is right? We may never know for sure...
There are no restrooms at Coal Oil Point.
If you're hungry, you could check out beachy Isla Vista town and its many student-filled cafes and coffee shops, or go to Camino Real shopping Center with its super yummy Anna's Bakery.
If you walk up Camino Majorca you will come to a playground with a huge dinosaur, a spinner, a tire swing and plenty of trees and vines. It's called Dinosaur Park- highly recommended! A short drive away is Girsh Park, an expansive park with tons of grass to run on and a playground.

Photo Gallery

The wooden stairs at high tide!	A nice spot to sit and gaze at the sea.	Little benches with perfect views abound.
Exotic cactus plants reach up to the sunny California sky.	The ruins of the bathhouse.	The smooth slow ride at Yucca's.
Pretty view at Coal Oil Point!	Surfers wait for the waves. White cliffs in background.	Surfers check out the swell at Sands Beach.
Checking out the scene below from the bench carved into the cypress tree.	The dunes, with the lagoon behind.	Cute couples on the dunes at Coal Oil Point on a warm summer evening.
Snowy Plover chick with parent, at Coal Oil Point. Photo used by permission, Snowy Plover Docent Program.	There were some great waves on January 16, 2010!

Directions

From Highway 101, exit at Glen Annie/ Storke Rd. Turn towards the ocean. Follow Storke Road to the end until it turns left and becomes El Colegio Rd. Turn right on Camino Corto. Turn right on Pasado Rd. Turn left on Camino Majorca. Park to your right along the road. At the end of Camino Majorca the pathway begins. Take the pathway to the right to get to Coal Oil Point. You can also follow the pathway on a short beautiful walk to the left.

This is an interactive map, you can zoom and move it.

Visitor Ratings

Overall Visitor Rating:

Jeff 10/06/2009 13:53	This is awesome! Way to go lots o' fun! Keep up the good work.
Sandro 10/01/2009 14:02	make sure you really check out all of the seashore along Goleta!
Sophie 09/19/2009 20:30	If you want to show out-of-town buddies the beaches, this is a great place to take 'em. And it's a very pleasant walk year-round.
Sonja 04/02/2008 10:39	This is one of my favorite places on the planet. Good walks, spectacular views, awesome and usually mellow surfing. Beautiful in any weather, maybe best just after sunset.