El Capitán State Beach

From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
Jump to: navigation, search
El Capitán State Beach
El Capitán State Beach beachview.jpg
El Capitán State Beach looking east
Map showing the location of El Capitán State Beach
Map showing the location of El Capitán State Beach
Location Santa Barbara County, California
Nearest city Goleta, California
Coordinates Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Area 2,634 acres (1,066 ha)
Established 1953
Governing body California Department of Parks and Recreation

El Capitán State Beach (meaning "the captain" in Spanish) is a protected beach in the state park system of California. It is located about 20 miles (32 km) west of downtown Santa Barbara. The beach is named after José Francisco Ortega, who retired from the Spanish Army in 1795 with the rank of captain and received the Rancho Nuestra Señora del Refugio as a land grant.[1]

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 pools on the beach and sycamore and oak trees in the campground area. Monarch butterflies congregate at El Capitán in autumn to breed.[1]

History

The Refugio oil spill occurred just north of nearby Refugio State Beach in 2015 when a pipeline ruptured. The spill went into a culvert that ran under the U.S. 101 and into the ocean. The spill spread over 7-mile of coastline (11 km) including this park and Refugio State Beach. The parks were closed during the clean-up including the typically busy Memorial Day Weekend.[2]

Gallery

See also

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links