Like Two Days in One on the Santa Barbara Coast

June 26, 2022

Like Two Days in One on the Santa Barbara Coast

According to Hollywood, many of the signs were there - the low blanket of fog draining the ocean of color, the vulture gliding above the same bluff-edge trail along which we rode, the same vulture now perched and eyeing passersby (and is that foreboding lurking behind those eyes), the old cemetery gateway, the Scottish High Cross, memorial to the estate's past owner, the cracked and split dovecote looking like some mausoleum from which who knows what escaped, heck maybe even ghosts from the decommissioned old World War II Goleta Marine Corps Air Station forever guarding this part of the coast.

There was no Hollywood movie magic on this day though. Soon enough the fog burned away revealing a boundless blue sky. Broad strokes painted the same blue across the ocean, upon which surfers rode waves below the bluffs. True, crumbling remains of the old Campbell cemetery were evident, but whatever presence from Colonel Colin and Nancy Leiter Campbell might have existed after their deaths was likely exorcised when their remains were removed in the 1940s. The other ruins, including the old beach house below the bluffs, the dovecote, bits of old road, could and have told stories of past opulence, but that is all they are now - reminders of what once was. The old coastal defense station has been a quiet place since that first, and only, attack upon Goleta in 1942, and now serve a more peaceful purpose. And the vulture? I am pretty sure he was more bothered by our presence than we were by his.

It may have been only one day, but it seemed like two - the foggy, gloomy day, and the bright sunshiny day and, truth is, Santa Barbara is about as far as I would want to drive for a single day outing - leave early enough and you can get a decent day's worth of riding, do some sightseeing, throw in a couple meals and a brewery stop and its a good full day. Incidentally, if you are interested in the history of the area, this story at goletahistory.com is a good place to start.

During the years I attended UCSB I never ventured beyond that line of eucalyptus trees that marked the western edge of the college town of Isla Vista (IV). The beater bike I had would likely not have survived what ever dirt trails might have existed between the town and the Devereux Slough, let alone the even larger open space north and west of Coal Oil Point. A couple weeks ago I decided it was time to do a little exploring and check the box that encompasses not only those places mentioned above, but the Ellwood Mesa / Goleta Monarch Butterfly Grove areas as well. It was going to be a day to just wander around - aimlessly, and find out where two wheels would take us.

Riding around the campus is always fun - the scenery is hard to beat, there is always some art, or display of historical significance, and it is interesting to see how much remains the same, has changed, or is being changed. A new building going up by the library is looking impressive, and I finally got to go into the expanded library, even with the old Davidson Library entrance still there. Bummed that the student store at the UCen was closed, I could have used new tee-shirt, and that the Art, Design and Architecture Museum was also closed. It looked like a summer basketball camp was taking place at the Thunderdome and using the residence halls for housing. We made the easy access to IV through the Pardall Tunnel and its light display memorializing the lives of six UCSB students murdered by a gunman in 2014. Then along Del Playa - the best and worst of IV. Anyway, cruising along the bluffs of the West Campus area to Coal Island Point, then up along the Devereau Slough and on to Ellwood where a criss-crossing matrix of trails and wider dirt roads beckoned. Ellwood Mesa, so historical accounts reveal, was largely denuded of trees by money hungry fools long ago; the big open space that exists now is basically flat and barren between the bluffs along the ocean and the eucalyptus grove used by Monarch butterflies during the winter. There are trails through the grove which are fun, and shaded, and popular, though the ground is often littered with broken, fallen eucalyptus branches.

Between the two built-up areas - the UCSB campus and Isla Vista, and the large open space area between IV, Goleta, the bluffs and the Sandpiper Golf Club whose fairways are beginning to brown, there is a whole lot to see in a day. In fact I foresee another trip happening in the near future.