Carpinteria Bluffs Nature Preserve contains a beautiful series of trails along the central coast. Wildflowers bloom in the spring alongside dramatic sea cliffs with a protected seal rookery. Carpinteria or 'carpenter shop' in Spanish is named for the Chumash Native Americans who built wooden canoes here and used the naturally occurring tar for waterproofing.
#79 Carpinteria Tar Pits
Tar Pits Park, part of Carpinteria State Beach in Carpinteria, is a natural asphalt tar pit lake on the Central Coast. There are only 5 known in the world with three in Southern California. The Native Chumash have used the tar to waterproof their canoes for thousands of years giving Carpinteria its name 'carpentry shop'. Hundreds of fossilized mammals have also been found here frozen in time.
