Carpinteria Tar Pits hike, Carpinteria, California

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
10/15/2026	4.5 miles	2 hours 0 minutes	74'	2.5 mph	301.4

Parking: 

• Carpinteria Bluffs Nature Preserve

Map:

• Gai GPS app

Directions:

• Head towards the ocean and turn right. Turn left, crossing the railroad tracks. Turn right and walk above the beach. Pass the Carpinteria Seal Sanctuary. Pass a parking lot and then descend to the beach. Walk along the beach until you reach the private homes of Sandyland Cove. Return the same way.

While I was in Morocco, a friend and I decided to do a California national park trip. We booked everything last minute, for a week when I had a good break in my schedule. I flew from Asheville to Santa Barbara. My flight was delayed 5 hours. First by a plane not arriving from Dallas, and then because the vehicle that carries the luggage to the plane ran into the plane and dented it. I had to rebook my connecting flight twice, and it became 2 connecting flights. Both the person at the gate and the flight attendant were great.  Luckily, I still got to Santa Barbara on the same day. My friend waited for me at the tiny airport. The airport doesn't even have a baggage carousel!

We had a free day on the 15th, so we went on a beach hike. We saw a seal sanctuary (the trail is above the beach at this point) and saw dozens of harbor seals dozing. We also hiked by the Carpinteria Tar Pits. I had no idea what tar pits were. Apparently, this is one of 5 asphalt lakes in the world. The tar pits contain ancient fossils; some are 2.6 million years old. The local Chumash people used the tar to waterproof their wooden canoes.

We drove to downtown Santa Barbara. We visited the Outdoors Santa Barbara Visitor Center, which has a lot of information on Channel Islands National Park. It's basically a room filled with books and a volunteer. The volunteer warned us about high winds on the ocean tomorrow. The visitor center also has a deck with a nice view of the harbor. I was about ready to fall asleep there in the shade.

We visited the maritime museum right below the Outdoors Visitor Center. We both enjoyed it and stayed as long as we could. We saw that there are 5 oil rigs between Santa Barbara and the Channel Islands. We learned that they are actually no longer operated. There is a controversy as to whether they should be removed. They form a habitat for underwater creatures at this point.

In the evening, we drove onto the Stearns Wharf Pier to get an ice cream and watch the sunset.

Sea figs! We saw these same plants on the Fisherman's Trail in Portugal.

Naturally occurring asphalt

A stop for a cup of tea and some planning.

Morocco Day 13 - Fes

9/29/2026

Our last full day in Morocco. My friends were spending the day taking a bookbinding workshop (which I didn't want to attend because it was with leather covers), so I had the day to myself. My main goal was not to get lost by myself! Walking around the medina can be overwhelming. The streets also look different depending on what time of day you are there - so a landmark you see in the morning may look very different in the afternoon. I walked to the main square in the riad with my friends, as they left for their ride to the workshop. I used my Gaia app to track my path. It's really not far, yet it can be confusing. 

I found a bench in the main square to sketch. I used an accordion sketchbook, so I could do a long panorama sketch (I'm so inspired by Rita Sabler's panoramas). I started sketching away. Eventually my shade disappeared. I needed to move. There was only one other bench in the shade, and there was already a young lady sitting there. I thought - maybe I can just stand and sketch in the shade. When she saw my predicament, she waved me over to come sit with her on her bench. She was quiet for a while and then asked to see my sketch. Her English wasn't very good, but we were able to have a conversation. She said she draws too, and she pulled out some sketches she had done of women wearing fashionable Moroccan clothes. I wondered if she is studying fashion design, because it looks like those types of sketches. We traded Instagram accounts, and she scrolled through my sketches. Later on, she offered me an apple to eat. She was very sweet and even though we couldn't communicate much, I enjoyed sitting quietly next to her as I sketched. She left after a couple of hours.

I somehow managed to sketch for 5 hours straight (without a bathroom break either!). I've never done a sketching marathon like that before. I loved the sketch I came up with. My friends texted me to let me know they were done with their workshop and to meet them for dinner at a place we had eaten before. It was challenging for me to find it, even though it was just a walk down the road. I was happy when I found them! We had a waiter who spoke quite good English. We were commenting on the number of cats we saw and he said that Morocco is half cats, half people.

I had a wonderful trip. Morocco has been on my bucket list for years after seeing photos of the medinas. 

My sketching buddy

I spent 5 hours sketching this scene (plus the buildings around it).

I used Gaia to track my path so I could find the riad again.
Looks simple, right? Haha - it isn't!

Final evening on our riad's rooftop

Morocco Day 12 - Fes

 9/28/2026

This morning we booked a 3-hour walking tour of Fes. We learned a lot - I'm so glad we did it. We learned about the importance of the location and size of windows on their buildings, for privacy. We also learned about different entrances or different door knockers for family and women, versus strangers and men. 

We visited a hammam. I never tried one, but it is an experience you can book. I couldn't tell if I would like it. But two of our guides we talked to said they do a hammam at least once a week.

We also visited the famous Chouara leather tannery. They give you a sprig of mint to sniff while you walk around, because the smell can be quite strong. The leather is cleaned, treated, and dyed in large stone vats. They actually use tons of pigeon poop in the process - and on sunny days it reeks. The pigments they use to dye the leather are all natural - such as mint.

The Fes medina is 1,200 years old. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The medina has neighborhoods within it. Inside the medina you'll find narrow carless streets, mosques, traditional houses, markets, and religious schools. There are around 9,000 streets in the medina. They form a maze. Our guide told us that this was to protect the medina from enemies. It is very easy to get lost in the medina, and we certainly lost our way multiple times (even with the help of Google maps). I've heard counts of between 185 and 400 mosques in the medina.

The three of us went out to eat at a restaurant with a view that we could sketch. In the evening, I wandered back to our riad's rooftop to continue a multi-day sketch I was doing of the view up there. As I sat up there sketching, flocks of white birds that look like ibises flew by past the main mosque in front of us.

A fountain - work is being done to restore them.

It's extremely common to see food left out for the stray cats

Scaffolding to help prevent this building from collapsing.

Visiting a hammam

Yarn dying area in the medina

A canal that runs through town - it smells like a sewer

A man making tiles

A man taking off his shoes when entering a mosque

Inside one of the larger mosques

I believe this is the women's entrance to the mosque

The leather tannery

It's a wet job!

Not tagine!

The ancient buildings topped with antennas made such a cool contrast.

Our riad with decorative plaster and tiles

Another evening on the rooftop.
We kept seeing flocks of white birds (storks? egrets?) flying by the main mosque