Hope Ranch Scenic Drive

Hope Ranch is an exclusive neighborhood with multimillion-dollar homes, located between Goleta and Santa Barbara. The glorious entry roads, Las Palmas Drive and Marina Drive, are gracefully lined with hundreds of Canary Island Date Palms. It's wonderful to drive along these roads and see the palms. Kids enjoy it too! Tell your kids that these palms are 60 feet high. Point out the thick trunks and arching fronds. The fronds stretch out to form 50-foot-wide crowns.

Laguna Blanca is a peaceful lagoon (which is dried out during the current drought) set amongst lawns and lovely trees that you can see as you drive along Las Palmas Drive. The views of the mountains here are gorgeous!
As you travel south on Las Palmas Drive and along Roble Drive, you enter a magical oak forest. When you reach Cliff Drive, near Sea Ledge Lane, there is a lookout area over the ocean where lovers stop at night. Continue and check out Hendry's Beach, officially named Arroyo Burro Beach, a beach with dreamy cliffs, where there are always a handful of locals walking fido. If you're hungry, you can eat at Boathouse Restaurant literally yards from the waves!
At the corner of Modoc Rd at Encore Drive (this area is called Hope Ranch Annex) there is a  bike path that leads along a creek past hills covered in equestrian trails. You can bike all the way to Goleta Beach, UCSB campus, and the groovy college town of Isla Vista.

Directions

This drive can be found on your GPS by plugging in Las Palmas Dr and Lago Dr, Santa Barbara CA 93110.
Exit Highway 101 southbound at La Cumbre Rd and turn right. Go over the freeway and then straight ahead onto Las Palmas Drive.
From Highway 101 northbound exit at La Cumbre/Hope. Turn left at the light and then left again at the next light (La Cumbre Rd). Then go straight ahead at the three-way stop. You are on Las Palmas Drive.
Continue along winding Las Palmas Dr. It becomes Roble Drive, then Marina Drive. Turn right on Cliff Drive. At the bottom of the hill, check out Hendry's Beach (Arroyo Burro Beach). To get back to the freeway, go east on Cliff Drive and then turn left on Las Positas Rd.

Click on map for interactive view