52 acres of open space. It's between freeway 101 and the Pacific Ocean. It has fields of…read morewildflowers and native plants, eucalyptus grove of trees, walking paths that connect to the Carpinteria Bluffs Trail, and access to a low tide beach and seal rookery. Since the preserve is on a cliff, the sunsets are gorgeous. Catch the sun as it dips slowly into the ocean horizon. The colors melting into the ocean. Perfection. The access and parking to the preserve is free. FREE! You gotta luv that. Since the preserve is on a bluff, the beach is elevated below. So accessing the beach requires some trekking skills. Plus there are active live train tracks between the beach and preserve. Trains often run through. Always have your wits about you when you're near train tracks. And keep a considerable distance from the moving train. Next to the bluffs are ball fields with actual real turf. There are public restrooms there. I can't offer any additional info on those, I didn't use them. Both the preserve and ball fields have their own parking lots. Also I want to acknowledge the citizens of Carpentaria for fighting off land developers to keep this land undeveloped and forming a land trust to permanently safeguard it.

Why have I never been here ? Living in LA for over thirty years and often driving to Santa…read moreBarabara with many stops I never knew this beautiful pathway is here. It's a nature preserve with so many plants and flowers all around. Along the beach and train tracks you can walk over a mile, it's family friendly and safe. You can see trains passing by and also stop by the seal sanctuary overlook. It's was beautiful during this time of the year. So many flowers and cool weather. My family and I really enjoyed our time here. So lovely. Will be one of usual stops now.

All Trails rates this hike as moderate by I say it's more towards hard. It is a steady steep…read moreincline for 3+ miles. All trails also says it's only 3.5 miles, that is one way! So your looking at 7 miles round trip. It's rocky but with shade the first 2 miles. After that bye bye shade and hello dry and dusty trail. You will want to wear hiking boots has it's very easy to loose gripping on the rocks and roll your ankle. I called it quits at 3 miles and went back down the trail. I was exhausted from the steady climb. I am not the most in shape person right now but I am fairly active. I just hiked 5 miles last week too. So unless you are in decent shape, be prepared to not make it all the way to the top. Bring plenty of water. As someone else said, walking through the private property portion until hitting the split off of the McMenemy trail is filled with dog poop and abandoned dog poop bags. It seems people don't take their dogs on the San Ysidro as I no longer says dog poop or bags unless they just kick it off the cliff side. On my way back down I saw a Gardner snake just off of the trail path. We started at 10:45 am and arrived back at the car at 1:42 pm.

Favorite hike in the region. Shaded, cool breeze up the ravine even though we were there in heat…read morewave during our visit. Moderate to easy hike. Loved the creek to put feet in at end and cool down with splash of water. Plenty of little critters, water striders, and other insects to entertain our kiddoes.

Ohhhh my gosh! This is a hidden gem! Seriously HIDDEN! Went for a drive thru the hills of…read moreCarpenteria and Montecito and stumbled upon this park... saw the sign for the turn off and decided to take it! Drove for a while on this gorgeous lush road with so much foliage and trees that you could barely see the sky, that led us to a beautiful park with a ton of trees, and a creek running through it! A wooden bridge crossing over...There was a huge dog park area; A nice bathroom; Playground for kids; There are several picnic areas available to reserve for events... Just lovely!

Only four stars for lack of puppy water…read more.. GPS is a little misleading. Once you see the Toro Canyon Park sign on the road you must keep going. It's definitely worth the extra drive. The fenced in off-leash dog park is big, but all dirt. The entire park itself is Amazing!!, Huge!!!, Clean And nicely done. We lucked out & were the 1st ones in. When we were leaving this nice park ranger type woman asked us if we'd be interested in attending a Rattlesnake Avoidance Training Class ?!?!? Lucky, Blessed, Confirmed! (9/14/22)

DO NOT BOOK WITH THIS COMPANY -- TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE- Location in Tracy- Northern CA…read more We booked a mountain ATV ride with Enjoy the Mountain ATV in July 2026, and unfortunately, the experience was extremely disappointing. The first red flag was that the company did not provide a phone number, making it difficult to get help or clarification when we needed it. We followed their directions exactly and arrived 30 minutes early. We parked in the designated lot as instructed by the person at the gate, but our guide never came to meet us. We eventually had to drive into the park ourselves and locate the guide, who was parked on the side of the road. There was no clear signage identifying the company or where customers were supposed to check in. Once we finally found the guide, the intake process took approximately 40 minutes. After all of that, we paid approximately $700 for a ride that lasted only about 20 minutes. We were also promised pictures from the experience, but no pictures were ever provided. What made the experience even worse was the customer service afterward. Rather than taking responsibility for the poor communication, unclear instructions, lack of signage, and failure to provide what was promised, the company provided little to no accountability. For the amount of money we spent, this was absolutely not the experience we expected. Poor communication, poor organization, inadequate customer service, and failure to deliver what was promised. Based on our experience, I would not recommend this company and would strongly encourage others to consider other ATV companies before booking.

My two brothers and I spent the long Thanksgiving weekend in Solvang and decided to end our trip…read morewith an ATV tour in the Santa Barbara mountains before heading back to L.A. Best decision ever! Although getting to the meeting point was a bit scary as we drove 15 mph through winding roads next to steep cliffs, the views were nice and the ATV experience was totally worth it! We gave ourselves plenty of time to get lost and it took us about 1.5 hours to get to the checkpoint. Luckily Google Maps was on the entire time and we even had an hour to kill on top of the mountain before our 12:30pm appointment. (Also had screenshots of the directions in case we lost service). Upon arrival, we met with the two girls who were wearing face masks and face shields so we felt safe. They had all the sanitizing stuff. They checked us all in, gave us each a mesh covering for our head, pairs of gloves, goggles and helmets. They offered different insurance plans (just like a rental car company), each ranging in price. Then, they walked us over to the ATVs where Jorge was our tour guide. He asked us if we've ever rode before and taught us how to use the automatic ATVs and made us feel comfortable and safe. (Throttle was on the right handle bar and brakes on the left. Second brake was a foot pedal). We drove on wide and narrow trails, over some fun rocky areas, kicking up lots of dust, and he took photos of us the entire time. This was a great family bonding experience and we're all still talking about how fun it was and want to do it again. Know Before You Go: It gets dusty so wear clothes and closed toe shoes that you're ok getting dirty. Give yourself plenty of time to drive to the location because the last thing you want to do is rush through the scary mountain roads. 10/10 would definitely do this again!

I read one review (not sure on what website that was) that one has to pay for parking here ($15)…read moreand that there are picnic tables here. Neither of these statements are true. There is no fee for parking and there are also no picnic tables. We got off the 101 to have our lunch here. It's OK. The parking lot is a decent size, there's a restroom and besides that there's a giant piece of green where the young ones play football etc. We sat on a towel on the grass and it was fine. There are a few bentsches but they are directly facing the playing fields. Another reason one may wish to stop off here is if one likes walking and being out in the open. There's a trail perhaps a few miles along running along Carpinteria with views of the mountains on one side and open fields/bushes and on the other the ocean; passing the seal sanctuary and much further.

I could not say enough nice things about this awesome ride! We chose the Ojai roots through the…read moreOrange Groves and it was beyond perfect the views were amazing Ian was super friendly and made us feel very comfortable on the trail. Ojai roots is the perfect place post ride. Nice vibes and drinks! Can't wait to be back and try the beach rides

4 of us took bike tour with Ian as guide. Great experience. Beautiful scenery. Over a bridge. Past…read moremountains. Flowers. Wildlife. End at ocean. stop to rest midway. Ian made it fun. Transport back to starting point.

Be warned! There is no water in the cement bath at Big Caliente! A couple friends and I biked…read moreback here for a soak and, when we pulled up, found the bath totally empty. It looked like their hadn't been water in it for a year. Tons of dead plants and not a trace of hot spring :/. All the plants are overgrown and access seems to be growing increasingly difficult. The only reason I am giving 2 stars is because the surroundings were beautiful. No reason to go back here for a bath, you won't find one :/.