The Santa Ynez Mountains are a portion of the

Transverse Ranges The Transverse Ranges are a group of mountain ranges of southern California, in the Pacific Coast Ranges physiographic region in North America. The Transverse Ranges begin at the southern end of the California Coast Ranges and lie within Santa B ...

, part of the

Pacific Coast Ranges The Pacific Coast Ranges (officially gazetted as the Pacific Mountain System in the United States) are the series of mountain ranges that stretch along the West Coast of North America from Alaska south to Northern and Central Mexico. Although the ...

of the west coast of North America. It is the westernmost range in the Transverse Ranges. The range is a large

fault block Fault blocks are very large blocks of rock, sometimes hundreds of kilometres in extent, created by tectonic and localized stresses in Earth's crust. Large areas of bedrock are broken up into blocks by faults. Blocks are characterized by rela ...

Cenozoic The Cenozoic ( ; ) is Earth's current geological era, representing the last 66million years of Earth's history. It is characterised by the dominance of mammals, birds and flowering plants, a cooling and drying climate, and the current configura ...

age created by the movements of the

Santa Ynez Fault Santa Ynez Fault is a left-reverse fault in Santa Barbara County of California. Its length is at least 130 km., running through Santa Ynez and north of nearby Santa Barbara. The Santa Ynez Mountains The Santa Ynez Mountains are a porti ...

. A very narrow range, the Santa Ynez Mountains rise quickly on its north side and drops off equally dramatically along the range's south face 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 ...

. The Santa Ynez Mountains begin as a series of volcanic hills near

Point Arguello Point Arguello ( Spanish: ''Punta Argüello'') is a headland on the Gaviota Coast, in Santa Barbara County, California, near the city of Lompoc. The area was first used by the United States Navy in 1959 for the launch of military and soundin ...

, and gradually transitions eastward into a single, well-defined ridge extending from

Gaviota Peak Gaviota Peak is a summit in the Santa Ynez Mountains in Santa Barbara County, California. It is located west of Santa Barbara, east of Point Conception and from the Pacific Ocean. Gaviota Grade is the most formidable in length and elevation ...

Matilija Creek Matilija Creek ( ) is a major stream in Ventura County in the U.S. state of California. It joins with North Fork Matilija Creek to form the Ventura River. Many tributaries feed the mostly free flowing, creek,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydro ...

. The range is approximately contiguous with the

Topatopa Mountains The Topatopa Mountains are a mountain range in Ventura County, California, north of Ojai, Santa Paula, and Fillmore. They are part of the Transverse Ranges of Southern California. Etymology A name for the mountains was first inscribed within the ...

beyond to the east, which terminates abruptly at

Sespe Creek Sespe Creek (Chumash: S'eqp'e', "Kneecap") is a stream, some long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed March 16, 2011 in Ventura County, southern California, in the Western ...

. The climate of the range is

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

with most of the precipitation falling between November and March. Most of the range lies in the California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion. At the crest and on the north slope, the rainier regions support extensive oak woodlands, mixed with other broadleafed species such as madrone, sycamore and bay laurel, along with some conifers, primarily

Coulter pine The Coulter pine or big-cone pine, ''Pinus coulteri'', is a native of the coastal mountains of Southern California in the United States and northern Baja California in Mexico. Isolated groves are found as far north as Clearlake, California on the ...

Geography

The mountains are principally 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 ...

, with an eastward extension into

Ventura County Ventura County () is a county in the southern part of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 843,843. The largest city is Oxnard, and the county seat is the city of Ventura. Ventura County comprises the Oxnar ...

, and are unusual in being an entirely east–west trending mountain range—one of the few in the United States. This is attributed in part to clockwise rotations of crustal blocks 90° or more since the early

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...

or about 17 million years ago. The range is mostly within

Los Padres National Forest Los Padres National Forest is a United States national forest in Southern California, southern and central California. Administered by the United States Forest Service, Los Padres includes most of the mountainous land along the California coast ...

. The southern slopes of the range drop off into a series of alluvial plains which make up the

along the Santa Barbara Channel. They tend to be made up of unconsolidated riverine deposits overlying shale bedrock. The northern boundary of the range is marked by the Santa Ynez Fault, the massive

thrust fault A thrust fault is a break in the Earth's crust, across which older rocks are pushed above younger rocks. Thrust geometry and nomenclature Reverse faults A thrust fault is a type of reverse fault that has a dip of 45 degrees or less. If ...

that uplifted the mountains since approximately 5 million years ago starting in the

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58Dibblee Jr, T.W., 1982. Regional geology of the Transverse Ranges Province of southern California. ''Geology and mineral wealth of the California Transverse Ranges'', ''10'', pp.7-26.Minor, S.A., Kellogg, K.S., Stanley, R.G., Gurrola, L.D., Keller, E.A. and Brandt, T.R., 2009. Geologic map of the Santa Barbara coastal plain area, Santa Barbara County, California: US Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Map 3001, scale 1: 25,000, 1 sheet, pamphlet 38 p. Notable features along the fault which mark the boundary of the range include Jalama Creek and the

Santa Ynez River The Santa Ynez River is one of the largest rivers on the Central Coast of California. It is long, ArcExplorer GIS data viewer. flowing from east to west through the Santa Ynez Valley, reaching the Pacific Ocean at Surf, near Vandenberg Space Fo ...

to the west and

in the far east. To the north of the range are the

San Rafael Mountains The San Rafael Mountains are a mountain range in central Santa Barbara County, California, U.S., separating the drainages of the Santa Ynez River and the Santa Maria River. They are part of the Transverse Ranges system of Southern Californ ...

. Laterally, the mountains extend from an eastern terminus at the canyon of the

Ventura River The Ventura River, in western Ventura County in southern California, United States, flows from its headwaters to the Pacific Ocean. The smallest of the three major rivers in Ventura County, it flows through the steeply sloped, narrow Ventura V ...

and Matilija Creek, north of

Ojai Ojai ( ; Chumash: ''’Awhaỳ'') is a city in Ventura County, California. Located in the Ojai Valley, it is northwest of Los Angeles and east of Santa Barbara. The valley is part of the east–west trending Western Transverse Ranges and is ...

, west across the Santa Barbara County line, to immediately north of the city of Santa Barbara, and then west, paralleling the coast, to the city of

Lompoc Lompoc ( ; Chumash: ''Lum Poc'') is a city in Santa Barbara County, California. Located on the Central Coast, Lompoc has a population of 43,834 as of July 2021. Lompoc has been inhabited for thousands of years by the Chumash people, who called ...

and

Vandenberg Space Force Base Vandenberg Space Force Base , previously Vandenberg Air Force Base, is a United States Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County, California. Established in 1941, Vandenberg Space Force Base is a space launch base, launching spacecraft from th ...

. The

flows just north of the mountains, paralleling them for most of their length. Before reaching Lompoc the mountain range diverges into two low ridges, separated by Jalama Creek, which then vanish into the Pacific Ocean. The mountains parallel the

Channel Islands The Channel Islands ( nrf, Îles d'la Manche; french: îles Anglo-Normandes or ''îles de la Manche'') are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two Crown Dependencies: the Bailiwick of Jersey, ...

to the south, another east–west trending range, a geologic extension of the

Santa Monica Mountains The Santa Monica Mountains is a coastal mountain range in Southern California, next to the Pacific Ocean. It is part of the Transverse Ranges. Because of its proximity to densely populated regions, it is one of the most visited natural areas in ...

; the two ranges are about thirty miles apart. Principal summits in the Santa Ynez range include Divide Peak, ,

La Cumbre Peak La Cumbre Peak is a peak in the Santa Ynez Mountains north of Santa Barbara, California and located within the Los Padres National Forest. Composed of boulders and slabs of the Matilija Sandstone amid groves of pine trees, it is the highest su ...

, (above Santa Barbara), and Santa Ynez Peak, . There are several important passes, including Gaviota Pass in the western portion of the range, through which runs

U.S. Highway 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 ...

via the

Gaviota Tunnel The Gaviota Tunnel (officially known as the Gaviota Gorge Tunnel) is a tunnel on U.S. Route 101 and California State Route 1 completed in 1953 in the center of Gaviota State Park, northwest of Santa Barbara, California on the Gaviota Coa ...

; and

San Marcos Pass San Marcos Pass (Chumash: ''Mistaxiwax'') is a mountain pass in the Santa Ynez Mountains in southern California. It is traversed by State Route 154. The pass crosses the Santa Ynez through a southwestern portion of Los Padres National Forest, ...

near Santa Barbara, through which runs

California State Route 154 State Route 154 (SR 154) (also known as the Chumash Highway or unofficially as San Marcos Pass Road after the signage) is a state highway in the U.S. state of California that runs from Los Olivos to Santa Barbara, crossing the San Marcos Pass i ...

capped by the magnificent

Cold Spring Canyon Arch Bridge The Cold Spring Canyon Arch Bridge in the Santa Ynez Mountains links Santa Barbara, California with Santa Ynez, California. The bridge is signed as part of State Route 154. It is currently the highest arch bridge in the U.S. state of California ...

near the summit. The highest point, an unnamed and unmarked crest colloquially called ''Peak 4864'', is located right above the eastern terminus of the range, near

Lake Casitas Lake Casitas is a reservoir in Ventura County, California, built by the United States Bureau of Reclamation and completed in 1959. The project provides drinking water and water for irrigation. A secondary benefit is flood control. It was the ven ...

and Matilija Canyon. Cave in Lizards Mouth Santa Ynez CA

Geology

Geologically the mountains are young and mostly of

sedimentary Sedimentary rocks are types of rock (geology), rock that are formed by the accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic matter, organic particles at Earth#Surface, Earth's surface, followed by cementation (geology), cementation. Sedimentati ...

origin. The most common rock types in the range are sandstones and shales, with some limestone in the western portion of the range. Volcanic rocks can be found at the very western extremity of the range, near

(Tranquillion Mountain Volcanics), while some

schist Schist ( ) is a medium-grained metamorphic rock showing pronounced schistosity. This means that the rock is composed of mineral grains easily seen with a low-power hand lens, oriented in such a way that the rock is easily split into thin flakes o ...

s of the

Franciscan Assemblage The Franciscan Complex or Franciscan Assemblage is a geologic term for a late Mesozoic terrane of heterogeneous rocks found throughout the California Coast Ranges, and particularly on the San Francisco Peninsula. It was named by geologist Andr ...

are exposed in a number of locations. The Santa Ynez Mountains were uplifted in

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

time, beginning about five million years ago, along the

, a feature which is considered to be active. The left bend in the

San Andreas Fault The San Andreas Fault is a continental transform fault that extends roughly through California. It forms the tectonics, tectonic boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate, and its motion is Fault (geology)#Strike-slip fau ...

is proposed to have constrained northward moving lithosphere to cause uplift of the range. Being a young uplift, the slopes are steep and the topography is extremely rugged; the gradient is highest on the northern side above , adjacent to the trace of the fault. Dramatic sandstone formations, including outcrops of the resistant Coldwater and Matilija formations, are visible at many locations in the range.

Biology

The predominant ground cover is

chaparral Chaparral ( ) is a shrubland plant community and geographical feature found primarily in the U.S. state of California, in southern Oregon, and in the northern portion of the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico. It is shaped by a Mediterranean c ...

, with

coastal sage scrub Coastal sage scrub, also known as coastal scrub, CSS, or soft chaparral, is a low scrubland plant community of the California coastal sage and chaparral subecoregion, found in coastal California and northwestern coastal Baja California. It is ...

, oak woodland and grasslands at lower elevations. Isolated stands of conifers (mostly

s) and other evergreen trees such as

bay laurel ''Laurus nobilis'' is an aromatic evergreen tree or large shrub with green, glabrous (smooth) leaves. It is in the flowering plant family Lauraceae. It is native to the Mediterranean region and is used as bay leaf for seasoning in cookin ...

tanbark oak ''Notholithocarpus densiflorus'', commonly known as the tanoak or tanbark-oak, is a broadleaf tree in the family Fagaceae, and the type species of the genus ''Notholithocarpus''. It is native to the far western United States, particularly Orego ...

and

madrone ''Arbutus'' is a genus of 12 accepted speciesAct. Bot. Mex no.99 Pátzcuaro abr. 2012.''Arbutus bicolor''/ref> of flowering plants in the family Ericaceae, native to warm temperate regions of the Mediterranean, western Europe, the Canary Islan ...

grow on the higher parts of the northern slopes, which are cooler and shadier than the southern slopes exposed to the sun. At lower elevations on the southern side of the range, a virtually frost-free zone,

avocado The avocado (''Persea americana'') is a medium-sized, evergreen tree in the laurel family (Lauraceae). It is native to the Americas and was first domesticated by Mesoamerican tribes more than 5,000 years ago. Then as now it was prized for i ...

s are grown in considerable quantity.

Inhabitants

Early inhabitants included the

Chumash people The Chumash are a Native American people of the central and southern coastal regions of California, in portions of what is now San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles counties, extending from Morro Bay in the north to Malibu ...

who left behind many examples of

rock art In archaeology, rock art is human-made markings placed on natural surfaces, typically vertical stone surfaces. A high proportion of surviving historic and prehistoric rock art is found in caves or partly enclosed rock shelters; this type also ...

including those at Painted Cave SHP. Large portions of the mountain range are now in the

, although there are private

inholding An inholding is privately owned land inside the boundary of a national park, national forest, state park, or similar publicly owned, protected area. In-holdings result from private ownership of lands predating the designation of the park or fores ...

s, including some substantial communities, such as the Painted Cave community where Jane Fonda owned the ridgetop

Laurel Springs Ranch Laurel Springs Ranch is a ranch located on a ridgetop in the Santa Ynez Mountain range northwest of Santa Barbara, California, between the Painted Cave community and the intersection of Painted Cave road with East Camino Cielo Road in the Los P ...

into the late 1990s. Other famous residents have included

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...

, whose

Rancho del Cielo Rancho del Cielo, also known in its English translation as ''Sky's Ranch'' or ''Heaven's Ranch'', is a / ranch located atop the Santa Ynez Mountain range northwest of Santa Barbara, California. It served as a vacation home for Ronald Reagan an ...

is at the top of the range west of Santa Barbara, and Ben Adelson. The

Cold Spring Tavern Cold Spring Tavern was established as a stagecoach stop in 1865. Originally known as the "Cold Spring Relay Station", it was a horse changeover and meals break station. The tavern is located 20 minutes north of Santa Barbara, California, in Cold S ...

is a popular local gathering place beneath the Cold Spring Bridge. Santa ynez peak looking west

Climate

The climate of the mountain range is Mediterranean. Summers are warm and almost entirely rainless, save for occasional

monsoon A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal oscil ...

al showers in August and September, though in most years there is no rain between May and October. Most of the higher coastal slopes of the range average between to almost of precipitation per year (mostly falling between November and March), about twice the total of the coastal plain below. About one year in three snow falls on the higher peaks in the mountains, but it rarely stays for longer than a few days. In the late spring and early summer the mountains and areas below to the south are subject to occasional intense sundowner winds, a type of

foehn wind A Foehn or Föhn (, , ), is a type of dry, relatively warm, downslope wind that occurs in the lee (downwind side) of a mountain range. It is a rain shadow wind that results from the subsequent adiabatic warming of air that has dropped most of ...

in which the air is heated adiabatically and dried as it moves downslope. In dry years these winds pose an extreme fire hazard. Occasionally extremely destructive fires originate in the Santa Ynez Mountains. In June 1990, a fire which began near Painted Cave burned south into the city of Santa Barbara, driven by sundowner winds, destroying over 500 homes. A fire in the 1940s destroyed most of the mansion that is now called

Knapp's Castle Knapp's Castle is a privately owned landmark ruined mansion in the Santa Ynez Mountains near Santa Barbara, California. Built in 1916 by George Knapp, the estate included 5 bedrooms, an organ room, and even an observatory. Located near East Camino ...

. More recent fires, such as the

Tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of ''Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and north ...

and Jesusita fires, have also been destructive to properties.

Geography

Geology

Biology

Inhabitants

Climate

See also

References

Further reading