Arroyo Verde Park, Ventura and Chumash Painted Cave Historic Park, Santa Barbara, California

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
10/17/2026	2.3 miles	1 hour 27 minutes	565'	1.5 mph	309.5

Parking: 

• Arroyo Verde Park Road

Map:

• Gai GPS app

Directions:

• Misc trails

We left our campground. Across the street from the campground was a visitor center, but it wasn't open yet when we left in the morning. Next to it was the "USA's smallest post office." Except it no longer is a working post office, which was disappointing. Apparently, it used to be. I wanted to sketch it; except we were moving on.

We were looking for a place to hike today. We struggled actually. Many trails were actually closed due to fire concerns due to the high winds. We ended up at the Arroyo Verde Park. When we paid the park entrance fee, we asked about where the longest trail was. The guy just said there was really only one trail, a loop around the park. It looked terribly disappointing. More like a county park. But we wanted to get some exercise in, so we headed off. What we discovered after leaving the main park area was a mess of trails. Many of them were wide dirt roads, but they were hilly and challenging. The heat was blazing, and the hike had full exposure. We ended up in some open space area - I was unclear whether this was part of the park or not. But it was hot and hilly. We saw a hike up to a peak. The trail looked miserable, but I wanted to do it for the view. The trail WAS miserable. Oh my gosh, it was challenging. We both just hoped that we wouldn't have to hike down it, as I might have to go down on my butt. We found another route down, which felt less like a route, but somehow made it down in one piece. This hike was way harder than I expected! Even though it was short, I was DONE when we got back. We sat in the parking lot and made lunch in some shade.

Later in the day, we stopped by the Channel Islands National Park visitor center. It's in Ventura, not actually on the islands.

We still had time to kill, so we visited the Chumash Painted Cave State Historic Park. It was out of the way, but cave paintings fascinate me. It's a tiny cave right off the road. Unfortunately, there is a gate across the shallow cave in order to prevent vandalism.

Hiking in the park - some of the trails are on dirt roads

We decided to hike up the steep trail on the right.

I wasn't sure if this is part of the same park???

Gene Marshall-Piedra Blanca National Recreational Trail, Los Padres National Forest, California 10/16

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
10/16/2026	5.8 miles	3 hours 33 minutes	761'	1.9 mph	307.2

Parking: 

• Piedra Blanca Trailhead, Rose Valley Road

Map:

• Gai GPS app

Directions:

• Misc trails

We were supposed to take a boat ride to Santa Cruz Island (one of the five islands that make up Channel Islands National Park) today and camp on the island overnight. We got an email from the ferry company that said the waves would be really bad due to the Santa Ana winds. We made the tough decision to cancel our trip. We found out later that the ferry decided to cancel the trip too - so even if we had decided to go, we wouldn't have been able to go. That left us with no lodging for the night, so we searched for places to camp. Most campgrounds were full, but the Wheeler Gorge Campground said they leave a few sites as first come first serve. We drove to the campground early and found only 5 spots available. We chose the best amongst the sites, a spot next to a creek. It was a great place to camp. The site had shade, a picnic table and a bear box and plenty of space. We paid for our spot and then took off to go hiking.

We drove further down the road to hike. I saw a hike that had cool rock formations. The trail is 18 miles long, so we only did part of it. We saw a couple of backpackers at the trailhead. It would be cool to backpack this! The weather forecast was 97 degrees, even up in the mountains. Oh boy! Against my better judgement, we still went hiking! Our hike was uphill. The hike was mostly exposed, so we were hot, hot, hot! Whenever we found a shady spot, I'd stop to cool down, catch my breath, and drink some water. We only saw 3 people on the hike. We hiked to a backcountry campsite and took a snack break. We hiked back down. It was a beautiful hike with neat rock formations. Gai is really helpful for the hike - in the beginning you cross arroyos, and the trail isn't clear there. Once you start climbing, the hike is straightforward. 

I bought a new 1-person tent for this trip. I own a 2-person tent and a 3-person tent already. This tent will be good for car camping when I fly by plane and don't have a lot of space for gear. It's also a double wall tent, so better for preventing condensation than my 2-person tent. I didn't sleep well, but I was so happy to be back in a tent again!

I almost stepped on this baby snake

Wedgeleaf Goldenbush

Only the second time I've set up this tent. It has a learning curve :)

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.