Carpinteria State Beach

Twelve miles south of Santa Barbara, Carpinteria State Beach offers a mile of beach for swimming, surf fishing, tidepool exploring and camping. Although dogs are not allowed on the beach, we have a great picnic area where they are allowed to enjoy the outdoors as well. Lifeguards patrol the beach year round and lifeguard towers are staffed roughly from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend. The Spanish named the area Carpinteria because the Chumash tribe, which lived in the area, had a large seagoing canoe-building enterprise, or "carpentry shop" here. This was because of naturally-occurring surface tar, which was used to waterproof the canoes. Tide pools contain starfish, sea anemones, crabs, snails, octopuses and sea urchins.

Harbor seals can often be seen near Carpinteria State Beach with a protected harbor seal rookery within walking distance of the state beach. Please note that December 1-May 31 this section of city beach is closed to protect young seal pups. The best way to observe the seals is use the City of Carpinteria Bluff trail.