Carpinteria State Beach: terraced bluffs, tar pit beach and dunes

Tar rocks at Carpinteria State Beach

The Carpinteria State Beach includes campsites within a coastline area of historical and geological interest. This California State Park invites visitors to short nature walks, tidepool explorations and recreational beach activities. 

The southern part of the park exhibits features that may remind you of tar oil pollution. Indeed, these structures derived in the past from tar—but from naturally seeping tar.

Carpinteria tar bluffs

Located along California's Ventura County coast, Carpinteria is one of several places in the western Transverse Ranges north of Los Angeles where tar (asphalt) oozes from the ground in natural seeps. This has happened for millenia. 

For thousands of years humans have found many uses for that tar. For example, the Chumash people waterproofed their baskets and canoes with the sticky tar. In her California Geology book, Deborah R. Harden writes [1]: 

On August 17, 1769, Gaspar de Portola's expedition encountered a group of  Chumash Indians who were caulking their sea canoe with tar, or brea, collected from a nearby pool. Portola's men named the site Carpinteria (carpenter's shop).

Tar bank with Santa Barbara Channel

Decades after Portola's expedition, Carpinteria turned into an industrial site. An onsite panel informs:

In the mid-19th century, druggist Charles Morrell opened the first large-scale venture to mine and refine asphalt oozing from Carpinteria's sand. Morrell's enterprise failed, but another succeeded.

Between 1891 and 1912, the Alcatraz Refinery and Conchas Asphalt Mine turned six acres of this seacoast into gritty, bustling industrial site.

Tar tidepools at low tide

Carpinteria asphalt impregnated sediments—like asphalt deposits sampled at Rancho La Brea in Los Angeles County and McKittrick in Kern County—provide a rich Quaternary insect record [2]: 

Ages range from over 50,000 radiocarbon to modern. The major paleoecological groupings are: (1) ground dwellers, (2) aquatics, (3) scavengers, and (4) miscellaneous.

 

Dune walk north of the tar sites

Getting there

Carpinteria is located twelve miles south of Santa Barbara in California. Take the Linden exit off U.S. 101 and go west on Linden to Carpinteria Avenue. Turn left onto Carpinteria and follow it to Palm Avenue. Go right on Palm and follow it to the beach.

State Park address: Carpinteria State Beach, 205 Palm Ave, Carpinteria, CA 93013.

Maps

Carpinteria State Beach:

https://www.parks.ca.gov/pages/599/files/CarpinteriaSB_CampMapFINAL061322%20(Remediated).pdf.

Playa Estatal Carpinteria:

https://www.parks.ca.gov/pages/599/files/CarpinteriaSBSpanishWeb2014.pdf.

References

[1] Deborah R. Harden. California geology. Pearson Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458, Second Edition, 2004; page 454.

[2] Scott E. Miller. Quaternary Insects of the California Asphalt Deposits. Third North Paleontological Convention, Proceedings vol. 2. August 1982. URL: 

More to explore

• Carpinteria State Beach. California State Parks. URL: https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=599. 
• Natasha Kaves. Few People Know About This Southern California Nature Preserveith Tar Pits And A Seal Sanctuary. Only In Your State, February 27, 2023. URL: https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/southern-california/unknown-natural-wonder-socal/.