SoCal

[Nick]

I'm going to be in Southern California for a few days next month in conjunction with a much longer work-related Vegas trip with Audra. We won't be camping, but we will have our car so road tripping will be pretty easy. My tentative plan is to spend 2 nights exploring the coast north of Los Angeles, perhaps as far north as Santa Barbara or perhaps even Morro Bay. Any suggestions on cool things to see/do/hike/explore in that area? We've been to San Diego (loved it) and explored a good amount of the northern coast down as far as Monterey, but this is all new to us.

Thanks!

 

[gnwatts]

The dunes at Oceana are cool, but probably a lot more crowded than the last time we were there. We had the best time car camping there, locked the wheels on my Bronco and drove up the beach and spent two nights alone. Probably not possible now. Santa Barabara is beautiful, the mission is a must see if you go there. But my favorite place in that area is definitely Ojai (Los Padres National Forest). The Sespe Wilderness and Condor Sanctuary, and some hot springs make this area a lot of fun. Ojai is (or used to be) a very cool little town. You could easily spend 2 days here.