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Goleta: Ellwood Area Butterflies, Bluffs, Beaches, and Bacara by Ronald Horii
Coming home from Southern California after New Years, we stopped at a place I loved to explore when I was a student at UCSB. It was the Ellwood Area of Goleta, west of the UCSB campus. It's famous for its butterfly grove. The monarch butterflies over-winter in the eucalyptus trees in the groves here. When I was a student, there were only makeshift trails here and no official signs. Now there are lots of interpretive signs and marked trails. This is a large area. There's a parking lot off of Hollister, but we parked on Coronado Drive. My son and I hiked into the butterfly preserve, then to bluffs overlooking Ellwood Beach and UCSB's Coal Oil Point Reserve. Afterwards, we drove down Hollister a short distance to Haskell's Beach at the Bacara Resort. Here are pictures from our little adventure:
Coming home from Southern California after New Years, we stopped at a place I loved to explore when I was a student at UCSB. It was the Ellwood Area of Goleta, west of the UCSB campus. It's famous for its butterfly grove. The monarch butterflies over-winter in the eucalyptus trees in the groves here. When I was a student, there were only makeshift trails here and no official signs. Now there are lots of interpretive signs and marked trails. This is a large area. There's a parking lot off of Hollister, but we parked on Coronado Drive. My son and I hiked into the butterfly preserve, then to bluffs overlooking Ellwood Beach and UCSB's Coal Oil Point Reserve. Afterwards, we drove down Hollister a short distance to Haskell's Beach at the Bacara Resort. Here are pictures from our little adventure:
