El Capitán State Beach is a protected

beach A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc sh ...

in the state park system of

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. The most easterly of three state parks along the

Gaviota Coast The Gaviota Coast in Santa Barbara County, California is a rural coastline along the Santa Barbara Channel roughly bounded by the city of Goleta, California, Goleta on the south and the north boundary of the county on the north. This last undeve ...

, it is located about west of downtown Santa Barbara, in

Santa Barbara County Santa Barbara County, California, officially the County of Santa Barbara, is located in Southern California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 448,229. The county seat is Santa Barbara, and the largest city is Santa Maria. Santa Barba ...

. The beach is named for

José Francisco Ortega José Francisco Ortega (1734 – February 1798) was an indigenous Californio soldier and early settler of Alta California. He joined the military at the age of twenty-one and rose to the rank of sergeant by the time he joined the Portola expedition ...

, who retired from the Spanish Army in 1795 with the rank of captain and received the

Rancho Nuestra Señora del Refugio The Rancho Nuestra Señora del Refugio ("Ranch of Our Lady of Refuge") was a Spanish land grant to José Francisco Ortega in 1794 and is the only land grant made under Spanish and confirmed by USA in 1866 to Jose Maria Ortega.under the US Suprem ...

as a land grant.

Features

El Capitán has a day-use beach as well as a campground with 131 sites (6 of which are RV only) and 5 group sites. There are

tide pool A tide pool or rock pool is a shallow pool of seawater that forms on the rocky intertidal shore. Many of these pools exist as separate bodies of water only at low tide. Many tide pool habitats are home to especially adaptable animals that ...

s on the beach and sycamore and oak trees in the campground area.

Monarch butterflies The monarch butterfly or simply monarch (''Danaus plexippus'') is a milkweed butterfly (subfamily Danainae) in the family Nymphalidae. Other common names, depending on region, include milkweed, common tiger, wanderer, and black-veined brown. ...

congregate at El Capitán in autumn to breed.

History

The parkland was acquired between 1953 and 1967 and the State Parks Commission classified El Capitán State Beach in June of 1962. In 2002 the state acquired 2,500 acres at a discount from the owners of El Capitan Ranch. The property rises above the existing park through oak woodlands and chaparral to the ridgelines of the

Santa Ynez Mountains The Santa Ynez Mountains are a portion of the Transverse Ranges, part of the Pacific Coast Ranges of the west coast of North America. It is the westernmost range in the Transverse Ranges. The range is a large fault block of Cenozoic age create ...

. The Refugio oil spill occurred just north of nearby

Refugio State Beach Refugio State Beach (Chumash: Qasil, "Beautiful") is a protected state beach park in California, United States, approximately west of Santa Barbara. One of three state parks along the Gaviota Coast, it is west of El Capitán State Beach. Duri ...

in 2015 when a pipeline carrying crude oil ruptured. The spill went into a culvert that ran under

US 101 U.S. Route 101, or U.S. Highway 101 (US 101), is a north–south United States Numbered Highway that runs through the states of California, Oregon, and Washington, on the West Coast of the United States. It is also known as (The Royal Roa ...

and into the ocean. The spill spread over of coastline, including El Capitán and Refugio state beaches. Both parks were closed for much of the summer during the clean-up, including during the typically busy

Memorial Day Memorial Day (originally known as Decoration Day) is a federal holiday in the United States for mourning the U.S. military personnel who have fought and died while serving in the United States armed forces. It is observed on the last Monda ...

weekend. The pipeline which caused the disaster is no longer in service. In 2016, the park's water system was destroyed when the

Sherpa Fire The Sherpa Fire was a wildfire that burned in the Santa Ynez Mountains along the Gaviota Coast in the southwestern part of Santa Barbara County, California in June 2016. In a matter of hours the fire spread to over as the fire was propelled by d ...

swept through a canyon near the main campgrounds. The park had already closed due to the smoke and fire danger. In 2021, a project removed barriers for

steelhead trout Steelhead, or occasionally steelhead trout, is the common name of the anadromous form of the coastal rainbow trout or redband trout (O. m. gairdneri). Steelhead are native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific basin in Northeast Asia and ...

swimming upstream to reproduce by rebuilding the entrance bridge.

Gallery

File:El-capitán-welcome-sign.jpg, Welcome sign. File:El-capitán-amphitheater.jpg, Amphitheater at campground. File:El-capitán-lifeguard.jpg, Lifeguard station. File:El-capitán-west-beach.jpg, View of beach looking west.

References

External links

El Capitán State Beach
{{DEFAULTSORT:El Capitan State Beach 1953 establishments in California Beaches of Southern California California State Beaches Campgrounds in California Parks in Santa Barbara County, California Protected areas established in 1953 Beaches of Santa Barbara County, California

Features

History

Gallery

See also

References

External links