Located within minutes of the urban centers of Santa Barbara and Ventura, Carpinteria State Beach offers visitors the opportunity to enjoy high-quality outdoor recreation in the setting of a small southern California coastal Community. With terraced bluffs, dune areas and a mile of beach for swimming, surf fishing, tidepool exploring and camping, Carpinteria State Beach is a unique treasure with a rich biological and cultural history. In 1769, the Spanish explorer Gaspar de Portola explored the Santa Barbara coast, eventually meeting the local Chumash people at the village of ‘Mishopshnow’ near what we now call Carpinteria Creek. Portola observed several of their plank “Tomol” canoes being constructed and the incorporation of the naturally-occurring asphaltum (tar) into its design. Members of the Spanish expedition referred to the area as La Carpinteria or ‘The Carpenter Shop,’ later to become Carpinteria.