From:  Amtrak Express, October/November 1988, pp. 40-43

"The Hidden Coast of California" by Georganna Simmons

Everyone knows that the coast of California runs north and south. It’s basic grade-school geography, right? However, there’s an important stretch of shoreline that doesn’t fit this rule: the coastal wedge between San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara. Here, the land swings out into the Pacific and runs almost due east before swinging south-west to Santa Monica. The scenery in this geographic curiosity is diverse, with only one common element: this is some of the most dramatic country on the West Coast. The highway swings inland here, and it’s hard to get the flavor of the area by car, but Amtrak’s main Pacific route runs right down the shore. 

To the south, dark, brooding cliffs of the Santa Ynez Mountains plunge right down to the Pacific shore. Canyons like El Refugio, which leads toward President Reagan’s Rancho del Cielo, funnel through peaks up to 6,000 feet high. Farther north, near Gaviota, the limestone landscape offers the enchantment of Nojoqui Falls, where water cascades 165 feet down a mossy escarpment — an especially spectacular sight right after rainfalls. 

Between mountain ranges, flat valley bottoms are dry farmed with a host of vegetables, fruits and flowers. Many crops here depend on thick morning fogs that creep off the ocean to blanket the land in life-sustaining moisture. 

Those mists drift across the sand dunes in Guadalupe, setting for scenes of the 1923 version of “The Ten Commandments.” They roll over the broad clam flats of Pismo Beach where off-road vehicles race down the beach. Some mornings, fog cloaks the huge futurist constructions at Vandenburg Air Force Base and Diablo Canyon Nuclear Station. In Morro Bay, just north of San Luis Obispo, mist curls around a conical rock that juts 576 feet out in the water. 

Back from the coast, mountains give way to rolling hills checkered with pastures and wineries. Many of the latter have tours and tasting rooms, and they produce vintages that have become internationally renowned. 

This range of terrain allows a wide range of sport. Pismo Beach has a great fishing pier with deep sea charter boats at the Port San Luis Marina. Osco Flaco Lake is renowned for its bass. Zaca in Los Padres National Forest is the only natural lake in southern California. Los Padres National Forest itself offers hiking and rock-climbing. Lake Lopez and Lake Cachuma (for trout) add boating and freshwater fishing, and there’s Cachuma Trails Stable, on Highway 154, for scenic horseback riding across the Cachuma Dam spillway near the Reagan ranch. 

In fact, this is horsy country, home to the famous spring ride of “Los Rancheros Visitadores”, a trail riding club to which President Reagan belongs. The group gathers to relive the thrill of the old-time round-ups, when ranchers gathered up their free-ranging cattle. They descend into the Santa Ynez Valley at Solvang to receive a blessing at nearby Santa Ines Mission. (Yes, both spellings are correct.)
 
Nearly forty horse farms in the Santa Ynez Valley specialize in thoroughbreds, though other breeds are in evidence as well. Of particular interest are the big, blond Belgian hulks that pull “The Honen” in Solvang, a Danish settlement on Highway 246, off Highway 154. This replica of a Danish streetcar provides a 20 minute tour of the town, a little bit of Scandinavia apparently transplanted to southern California. For more traditional, western scenery, stop in Ballard, Los Olivos and Santa Ynez. You can even visit Indian reservations close by. 

History and building buffs enjoy the different types of architecture in central California. The area includes the star of the state’s mission chain, La Purisma. Most of this mission’s buildings have been restored to their original (1820) form and furnished with authentic period pieces. La Purisma is surrounded by 966 acres of parkland still served by the Franciscan mission’s original water system. You can hike and picnic. Plan to spend an hour or two to see everything at the mission. 

Similar missions anchor either end of this section of the state: Mission Santa Barbara, called “The Queen of the Missions”; and Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, established in 1722. In Solvang, you will find Old Mission Santa Ines, with its beautiful Chapel of the Madonnas and large murals in the church proper.
 
This entire area was originally settled by the Chumash Indians about 10,000 years ago. In 1542, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, a Portuguese navigator, claimed it for Spain. Franciscan priests followed to build the missions, and soldiers, to keep the peace. The flags of Spain, Mexico, independent California and the U.S.A. have flown over the Presidio Real they built in Santa Barbara in 1782. It established a Spanish-Moorish flavor which was deliberately retained as the city developed. Santa Barbara’s courthouse is a graceful, tropical palace with historical exhibits. El Paseo is a picturesque shopping arcade in and around an 1827 adobe home of the De la Guerra family, described in Richard Henry Dana’s famous book, "Two Years Before the Mast". 

For a refreshing change of pace, the city’s waterfront, Stearns Wharf, is the oldest operating on the West Coast, begun in 1871. A paved walkway atop the breakwater offers a fascinating half- mile tour of the nearby harbor. 

There are many more historical sites and structures to visit in Santa Barbara, too many to list here, but the chamber of commerce or visitors’ bureau in each city will supply maps and guides. Other noteworthy sites include:
 
The Goleta Valley Historical Society has preserved an entire ranch which once included 1,043 acres of almond, lemon, walnut, and orange trees and grains. Stowe House, the family home, a museum in a former warehouse, a blacksmith shop in a former garage, an old bunkhouse and a cottage can be viewed or toured on weekends, except January. 

Solvang is much more recent in construction, but no less interesting. It was founded in the early part of this century by midwestern educators, and looked like any other California town until the 1950’s. Then, one local resident erected a replica of a Danish windmill. The idea caught on and the town gradually began to transform itself into what looks like a small Danish town with palm trees. Visitors from Denmark have confirmed the authentic appearance of the town’s farm-type buildings with “bindingsvaerk” walls (heavy beams in brick or masonry), tile or copper roofs, dormers, stained glass windows, gas street lamps as once were the rule in Copenhagen. Look up and you’re likely to see simulated storks nesting among the roof ridges. The town now boasts four windmills; an older windmill was recently restored northwest of Solvang on Fredensborg Canyon Road. The Wulff windmill was dedicated as a Santa Barbara County Landmark in 1980. 

Nearby Santa Ynez features a return to the old west with its ban on sidewalks, its false-front or high- front buildings, and the Santa Ynez Indian reservation, the smallest one in the country. Ballard has a 105-year-old “little red schoolhouse” — in continuous use since 1883. Los Olivos was once a major stage coach stop and the southern end of the narrow gauge Pacific Coast Railroad. Mattei’s Tavern served travelers during that era (1886-1934); now a state landmark, it continues to delight tourists. In San Luis Obispo, you can visit places such as the adobe home of Judge Walter Murray, first signer of the Pledge of the Vigilantes; and the Ramona Depot, built by the Southern Pacific as part of a hotel, which lasted only 16 years before burning to the ground in 1905. 

An entirely different experience awaits in nearby Avila Beach, where establishments offer the soothing pleasures of mineral hot springs in pools large and small. 

To delight your olfactory and gustatory senses, don’t miss the Scandinavian cuisine in Solvang (ableskivers are divine). Or try a Santa Maria Spanish-style beef barbecue, complete with pinquito (pink) beans, available only in this valley. More extraordinary dining is found at the Madonna Inn, in San Luis, and J.K. Frimple’s of Santa Barbara. The first is also a motel where each room is individually decorated, The dining room is done in ornate — some might say gaudy — rococo; the second has a 100-year-old tree growing in its center, sheltering the patio area. This Moreton Bay fig is a relative of an even larger tree located across the street from the Amtrak station in Santa Barbara. It is said that 10,000 people can stand in its shade at noontime. This Australian import was planted in 1877; concern for its safety caused the nearby freeway to be rerouted.
 
Depending on when you visit, every community has special festivals and each county a yearly fair. Theaters, museums, galleries and exhibits abound. Antique stores in Santa Barbara, Grover City, Pismo, Arroyo Grande, Oceano and Solvang will ship pieces to your home. Music aficionados can revel in all types of ensembles from city symphonies to the annual jazz jam at Pismo Beach. 

For plant and animal lovers, there are parks galore in which to observe the native wildlife; the Santa Barbara Zoo, arboretum, and botanical garden; the flower fields at Lompoc; and, of course, the shore and ocean for sea otter, lion, seal, bird and whale watching. Monarch butterflies winter in Morro Bay and Pismo Beach. Nighttime entertainment also thrives in numerous establishments, and once a year an international film festival takes place in Santa Barbara.

With this much diversity, the chances are you can find something to suit you, here where the West Coast really does run east and west.

Sidebar:

Coming and going, train travel gives the best view of California’s shoreline. 

“The Coast Starlight” offers spectacular vistas of the Golden State, especially its isolated beaches from San Luis Obispo to Santa Barbara. More than 100 miles of pristine shore awaits north and southbound trains, which travel this section during daylight hours. 

Pounding waves spray deserted sand and jutting rocks, as they did four centuries ago when discovered by European explorers. As the train rolls by, the rhythmic surf is a soothing respite from the bustle of modem life, and passengers crane their necks in search of migrating whales. 

Hours of the glorious scene go by before the train reenters picturesque towns, many founded by Spanish missionaries in the 1700s. Buildings with red-tiled roofs and white stucco walls exemplify the Spanish influence today, and the palm-lined boulevards complete a distinctly Californian look. 

Amtrak’s southbound the Coast Starlight originates in Seattle, where connecting passengers form the Empire Builder and the Pioneer conclude their westbound journey. Leaving Seattle, the Coast Starlight carries travelers to Oregon and the Cascade Range, where the forests are in view until nightfall. 

Passing through northern California, most passengers awake to see Oakland and San Francisco’s skyline. Then it’s on through the wine country and San Joaquin Valley, the richest agricultural area in America. Reaching the San Luis Obispo train station in early afternoon, many riders detrain for Amtrak’s tour of the fabled Hearst Castle: after overnighting there, tour participants can reboard the Coast Starlight and see the renowned Pacific shore and southern California. 

Once Santa Barbara is reached, the train cuts through the San Fernando Valley, a principal Los Angeles suburb. After three stops, the journey concludes in Los Angeles’s Union Station, one of America’s stateliest terminals. 

In Los Angeles, travelers can continue southward on Amtrak’s “San Diegan” or travel eastward to Chicago on the Southwest Chief or southeast to New Orleans on the Sunset Limited which leaves Los Angeles on Sunday, Wednesday or Friday. 

The northbound Coast Starlight leaves Los Angeles each morning, allowing passengers the same unparalleled daytime view of the spectacular coastline as the southbound train. 

Amtrak tour packages, many with lodging, are available for several California destinations. For details, request the tour desk when calling Amtrak’s toll-free reservation number 1-800-USA-RAIL #

Copyright 1988 Georganna Hancock Simmons