Carpinteria State Beach

Carpinteria camping is twelve miles south of Santa Barbara and offers a mile of beach for swimming, surf fishing, tidepool exploring and camping. Dogs are not allowed on the beach, but we have a great picnic area where they can enjoy the outdoors. Lifeguards patrol the beach year round and lifeguard towers are staffed during the summer. The area was named Carpinteria because the Chumash tribe had a large seagoing canoe-building enterprise. This was due to the surface tar that was used to waterproof the canoes. There are sea lions and gray whales in the area in the winter and spring. Tidepools contain starfish, sea anemones, crabs, snails, and octopi.