A Santa Barbara Walk

Between the Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific. Streets, mission walls, and the light on stucco. A walk, not a guide.

Sebastián Vizcaíno named the channel for Saint Barbara in 1602. The Spanish presidio was founded in 1782. The city was incorporated in 1850.

• About ninety minutes northwest of Los Angeles.
• Population around 88,000.
• Annual average temperature about 72°F.

Mission Santa Barbara sits above the town — arches, garden, the channel in the distance. Franciscan, late eighteenth century. The walk goes through that fabric, not around a brochure of it.

Experiences