JOIN US ↠ ACCESSIBLE OUTDOORS ↞ 13 DEC 2025
JOIN US ↠ ACCESSIBLE OUTDOORS ↞ 13 DEC 2025
NatureTrack provides K-12 students in Santa Barbara County with outdoor field trips where teachers specify what they would like NatureTrack volunteer docents to emphasize based on what students are currently studying in class.
Direct communication with teachers ensures that each field trip supplements in-classroom units of study and is in alignment with state-mandated standards.
Dedicated volunteer docents who enjoy sharing their knowledge and love of the outdoors with students lead NatureTrack adventures. Students learn the wonder of what is in their own “backyard” by hiking on local trails, spending time in oak woodlands, chaparral, grasslands, coastal sage scrub, and other regional ecosystems.
PLEASE NOTE: If you do not hear from NatureTrack within 48-hours of your reservation, email: abby@naturetrack.org or call 805-886-2047.
There is never a cost to schools, students, teachers, or parents for a NatureTrack field trip. NatureTrack even covers bus transportation expenses to get students and teachers from their schools to field trip locations.
Curriculum Standards
Combined Photo Release and Waiver
Often used together, these two parklands in Santa Barbara allow exploration of highly varied eco – zones in a short time period. Restoration on the Douglas Family Reserve provides the opportunity to introduce the concept of re – wilding of land previously used for agriculture and residences. Native plantings in the riparian area are widely varied including many water loving plants including mulefat, juncus, arroyo willow and sycamore. On the mesa of the park are stands of imported palms, eucalypts and exotic we eds along with more recently restored native plants where contrast among plants and habitats are explored.
Views out over the Pacific and the Arroyo Burro beach with shore birds and sea life are often in view. On the Arroyo Burro beach, the geology of the coastline is readily in view all the way to the to p of the Santa Ynez Ridge. This allows for interpretation regarding erosion, sand movement, and sedimentation and the entire rock cycle. Weather patterns and the effects on the local habitat provide the possibility for discussions that focus on the interface between ocean and beach with the estuary at the edge. Plant and animal life from the ocean and the land are compared for their adaptation to their habitat.
Curriculum Standards
Combined Photo Release and Waiver
Carpinteria State Beach offers a surprisingly rich range of natural science topics concentrated along a single stretch of coastline. The beach is one of the few places where natural petroleum seeps are directly observable, with tar emerging from the seafloor and collecting along the shoreline — a tangible connection to the region’s deep sedimentary history and a natural entry point for discussions of fossil fuels, organic matter, and geologic time. The broad, gently sloping sandy beach itself illustrates the dynamics of sand transport, longshore drift, and seasonal changes to shoreline shape. On a clear day, the Channel Islands are visible offshore, providing context for discussions of island biogeography and the effects of geographic isolation on species diversity.
At the water’s edge, tide pools support sea stars, anemones, hermit crabs, and a variety of algae, making marine intertidal ecology immediate and hands-on. The interface between the beach, the adjacent estuary of the Carpinteria Salt Marsh, and the open ocean creates a natural comparison of habitats — organisms from each zone can be observed and contrasted for their particular adaptations to salinity, wave energy, and tidal exposure. Shorebirds and seabirds work the surf line and the marsh edge simultaneously, offering a living illustration of how different species partition a shared coastal environment. Weather patterns moving through the Santa Barbara Channel and their effects on surf, fog, and temperature provide additional opportunity to connect local observation to broader discussions of coastal climate.
Curriculum Standards
Combined Photo Release and Waiver
El Capitan State Beach sits at the mouth of El Capitan Canyon, where a perennial creek meets the Pacific, and that convergence is the defining feature of the site’s educational richness. The riparian corridor running down from the canyon supports a dense canopy of sycamore and oak woodland — rare vegetation along this stretch of coast — and the contrast between that lush streamside habitat and the open chaparral on the surrounding slopes is immediately visible and discussable. Where the creek meets the beach, the small estuary and lagoon shift in size and salinity with season and tide, offering a natural introduction to the dynamics of coastal wetlands and the way freshwater and saltwater systems interact at their boundary.
On the beach itself, the rocky outcrops and reefs exposed at low tide support productive tide pools where sea stars, anemones, urchins, and a variety of algae and invertebrates can be observed in close detail. The geology of the coastline is readily visible in the exposed sedimentary bluffs and wave-cut platforms, providing a clear record of uplift, erosion, and marine terracing over geologic time. The Santa Ynez Mountains rise steeply directly behind the beach, and on a clear day the view from the shoreline captures the full transition from summit to sea in a single frame — an unusually complete picture of the watershed concept, from the mountains that capture rainfall down through the canyon creek and into the ocean.
Curriculum Standards
Combined Photo Release and Waiver
Easily accessible to Goleta and Santa Barbara schools, Goleta Butterfly Grove is a delicate resource available for educational presentation of the Monarch butterfly migration and how it culminates with over-winter gathering in preparation for the spring breeding. Butterflies coursing hundreds of miles north for the warm months begin the inter-generational story that brings their third generation off-spring back each winter here at Ellwood. While the larger Midwest to Mexico corridor of Monarchs is ever more threatened by pesticides and deforestation, this western group provides comparisons in geographic forces bearing on one of the last great migrations on the planet.
Historical eucalyptus, local native plants and invasive plants provide lessons in habitat and preservation on land that overlays an important geological fault and a base for exploring the broad geological features of Santa Barbara County from the Channel Islands to the Santa Ynez Range. On the beach we are able to study tides, the coastal zone habitat and the geology of the Monterey formation in the cliffs as it relates to local oil industry and the basin and range visibly evident in this location.
Curriculum Standards
Combined Photo Release and Waiver
This site in western Goleta provides easy access to geological formations, beach activities, marine life, and marine fossils. Here the Monterey geological formation is clearly evident and provides opportunities to discuss oil production while viewing the offshore oil platform Holly. Foraminifera, microscopic animals, were abundant in the Monterey shales creating the fossil fuels we use today. Fault lines, beautiful bedrock along with sea cut mesas are among the geological features readily available here. Migratory birds make an appearance along the shore and in the offshore kelp forest, which also affords material for art projects and learning about marine life. The watershed that ends at this beach demonstrates erosion process and sedimentation along with the cliffs and the cut banks as examples of the entire rock cycle. The limited catchment above the beach is interesting to contrast with the lengthier Santa Ynez Valley. Our field trips to Haskell’s Beach are often coupled with time at Ellwood Butterfly Reserve, where we study the migratory patterns of the monarch butterfly. Also available at these sites are the contrasting exotic plants and native plants including eucalyptus, coyote bush, willow, mule fat and annual forbes.
Gaviota State Park Beach offers excellent examples of the central coast’s geologic landscape. The east-west trend of these features — Santa Barbara Channel, sea cliffs, coastal mesas, and mountain ridges – records millions of years of tectonic compression that has lifted the Earth’s crust up, out of the water, and tilted its rock units south. The geology of Gaviota’s sea cliffs displays this tilted folding with fine exposures of the Monterey Formation, an organic marine mudstone called shale.
Beach walking up the coast to the west requires careful attention to the tides. If teachers wish to make the most of Gaviota State Park Beach, be sure to select a date and time with the lowest tide. During a zero or minus tide, the sea cliffs offer a fascinating variety of rock layers, including hard tan porcelanite, shale, and a tar-saturated black conglomerate with pieces of these rocks. The action of the surf has eroded shallow caves in the sea cliff, and wave-cut rocks allow tide-pooling at the lowest tides. Beautiful arch-shaped recesses in the cliff are fine examples of weathering of weaker rock layers that subsequently erode away.
Down the coast, to the east, the beach is broader and usually accessible to the east. The Monterey rocks of the sea cliffs show fine layers tilted south with many varieties of color, texture, and chemistry alterations. Careful exploration may also reveal fossilized ripple marks in the shale, sand injectites pushing up through the rock layers, and the fossil bones of a marine mammal encased in a rocky outcrop in the sand.
Several offshore oil rigs are visible from the beach, built in 1976-1989 to pump oil from its source in the organic shales of the Monterey Formation. These structures form a point of discussion about fossil fuels in our changing world and the importance of the Santa Barbara Channel, which provides a rich habitat for many marine species.
Curriculum Standards
Combined Photo Release and Waiver
Where the river flows through Solvang, long-standing pools are formed and riparian habitat supports unique flora and fauna in the system strikingly different from the surrounding valley and hills. Here we look at the geology of the watershed that extends 90 miles through the full catchment. The geology of erosion including material dispersion and local rock formation can be studied here. The steelhead restoration project is a part of the history of this river system that includes the story of the migratory oceangoing fish and the conservation efforts to maintain their habitat. We usually see migratory and residential birds. Short trails provide opportunities for discovering local plants including mule fat, Willow, coyote bush, and Cottonwood.
Oso Flaco Lake and the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes together form one of the most ecologically layered coastal sites on the California coast, and the journey from the lake through the dunes to the ocean traces a sequence of habitats found almost nowhere else in the state at this scale. The lake itself is a freshwater wetland fringed with tule, cattail, and willow, and it supports an exceptional diversity of resident and migratory birds — grebes, coots, herons, and a rotating cast of waterfowl depending on season. A boardwalk crossing the lake and threading through the dune scrub provides close access to the wetland margin without disturbing the habitat, making bird observation and discussion of freshwater marsh ecology accessible even with younger learners. The contrast between the still, sheltered water of the lake and the exposed, wind-driven landscape just beyond it sets up an immediate and vivid comparison of how dramatically conditions can shift over a short distance.
Beyond the lake, the dune system itself is among the largest and tallest coastal dune complexes remaining in California, and its scale makes the physical processes of wind, sand transport, and dune formation tangible in a way that smaller sites cannot. Vegetation succession across the dunes — from bare sand near the shoreline through dune buckwheat and beach primrose in the active zone, to more stabilized scrub and willow thickets further inland — provides a living transect of how plant communities establish and modify their environment over time. At the beach, the full energy of the open Pacific arrives without interruption, and the contrast with the protected lake just a short walk behind creates a natural framework for discussing wave energy, coastal erosion, and the role that intact dune systems play in buffering the land from the sea. The distant offshore views and the vast uninterrupted horizon reinforce the sense of being at a genuinely wild edge of the continent.
Refugio is generally a calm beach where we can inspect the coastal strand habitat for plants and animals shared for hundreds of miles up and down the Pacific coast plus some that are more local. We can see local resident shorebirds and migrant birds that stop off on their long journeys as far north as the arctic circle and south down into South America.
Along the Gaviota Coast the weather is affected by the dramatic change to south facing seashore orientation at Point Conception and the very nearby Santa Ynez Mountain range. The coast here is also protected by the Channel Islands which limits the range of coastal waves. The massive California (ocean) Current mostly rounds the Channel Islands and a seasonally variable sea eddy is formed in the channel south of Regufio State Beach.
The watershed catchment is severely truncated by the short distance to the ridge tops that define its northern boundary. The resulting steeply sloping land comes nearly to the beach and pours rain runoff waters quickly back to the ocean where there was once a wetland area before “improvements” were made in the early 20th Century to make the beach more attractive to tourists with the many introduced palms that have matured over the past decades.
Refugio Beach is the site of the most recent oil spill, and that history is an important lesson on the damaging effects of oil on natural habitats including sea flora and fauna as well as that of the coastal strip. The marine ecology here includes giant kelp, a wide variety of fish and cetaceans such as California gray whales and dolphins sometimes seen from the beach. Tidepools include a variety of coastal flora and fauna where we can study the interaction of life at the edges of land and sea
Curriculum Standards
Combined Photo Release and Waiver
Located west of Santa Barbara between Refugio and Gaviota State Beaches, the steep canyon affords students the opportunity to see native trees and plants in an undisturbed community of sycamores, ancient oak trees, bay Laurel and sages. Included in this habitat are many species that are considered threatened or endangered. This narrow canyon provides an interesting geology with ocean views visible from the trails among the unique landforms. The history here includes a Chumash village as well as a stagecoach stop. The Arroyo Hondo story of selection by the Land Trust for Santa Barbara County provides lessons on conservation of local natural habitats set aside for learning opportunities and research.
The Carpinteria Bluffs Nature Preserve offers an elevated perspective on the coastal landscape that connects terrestrial and marine ecosystems in a single viewshed, and the bluff-top trails provide unusually direct access to both without requiring a descent to the beach. The native coastal scrub that covers much of the preserve — lemonade berry, coyote brush, black sage, and buckwheat — represents the plant community naturally suited to the salt-laden winds and thin soils of the bluff edge, and remnant stands of eucalyptus nearby create a visible contrast between introduced and native vegetation that invites discussion of plant adaptation, habitat restoration, and the long-term ecological consequences of non-native species. Seasonal wildflowers add another layer, illustrating how coastal scrub responds to the Mediterranean climate pattern of winter rain and summer drought.
At the base of the bluffs, one of the largest mainland harbor seal rookeries in California occupies the protected beach below, and observation from above allows close watching of seal behavior without disturbance to the animals. Pupping occurs each winter, and the rookery provides a compelling, real-time example of how wildlife selects and depends on specific habitat features — in this case the combination of a sheltered beach, limited human access, and proximity to productive offshore feeding grounds. Views across the Santa Barbara Channel extend to the Channel Islands on clear days, grounding discussions of ocean circulation, prevailing winds, and the cold-water upwelling that makes this stretch of coastline so biologically rich. The bluffs themselves, cut by wave action over time, expose the sedimentary geology of the coast and provide a readable record of marine terracing, uplift, and erosion visible from the trail above.
Curriculum Standards
Combined Photo Release and Waiver
Trails at Gaviota State Park parallel the historical crossroads of Santa Barbara County where native-Americans traveled from the islands, the ocean and foothills to the interior as far as the Sierra and back to trade diverse resources and goods from across these geographic areas. Unique geology created the Gaviota Canyon that has been used for eons as a corridor for human travel from footpaths to state highway and railroad. The same corridor is the pathway for an exchange of wildlife and plants represented in multiple habitats including coastal strand, chaparral, coastal sage, oak woodland, grassland, as well as riparian/marsh areas. The rich diversity of plants and animals affords opportunity to explore their relationship with this unique geographic area.
We take lessons here from the geology and weather, especially influenced by the geographic configuration of nearby Point Conception and the influence of the Channel Islands with ocean currents and landmass air movement. Because elevation changes and the varied coastal influence, there is an enormous variety of plants closely arrayed by habitat allowing comparisons between habitats and seasonal changes. Short walking distances yield huge variety in observations about the natural history in this locale and how it compares to the wider county.
Curriculum Standards
Combined Photo Release and Waiver
Located in Santa Barbara County, Midland School Trails is one of the best locations for NatureTrack “adventures.” With over 35 trails and dirt roads on 2,860 acres, NatureTrack can offer a variety of “adventures” for students from exceptional geology lessons crossing a 100 – million year old fault, seeing examples of plate tectonics, to exploring multiple habitats, and more, including studying the Native Indians on the site Soxtono kmu, which was the largest Chumash Village in the Santa Ynez Valley. Learning comes alive on the Midland School Trails!
Midland School Trails are nestled between the Los Padres National Forest, the largest national forest in the state, and adjacent to the San Rafael Wilderness Area, home of the Manzana River and its tributaries. Meadows, creeks, cliffs, canyons, and ridgelines; yucca, sycamores, oaks, sage, and poppies; coyotes, wild pigs, wild turkeys, owls, hawks, and eagles; a perfect location to connect with the natural world on one of many NatureTrack “adventures.” The sense of place a student develops at Midland is invaluable and enduring.
Curriculum Standards
Combined Photo Release and Waiver
Nojoqui Falls lies on the edge between wild lands and agricultural lands, allowing students to see the effects of natural settings and those maintained for harvest and recreation at the lower park. The rolling green of lower fields allows for games introducing concepts from nature in an open setting and the trail to the falls for interpretation of the natural ecology of the area. A very slow moving landslide, shale and a fault at the falls provide geological perspective relative to the Santa Ynez Valley beginning at the lower park. Seasonal waterfalls and riparian habitat with sycamore, bay laurel and the ever – present poison oak contrast with planted areas be low and outside the park boundaries.
Agriculture is nature harnessed for food production and here we are able to point out how the wild native plants live in contrast with those domesticated as crops in a ruderal setting. Often students visit the near by farms in conjunction with our partners, SY Veggie Rescue, which we then label as FarmTrack Adventures. Students learn about organic farming and what makes it different from non-organic farming. Students learn about gleaning, then actual glean produce to be donated to a local non-profit.
Curriculum Standards
Combined Photo Release and Waiver
Sedgwick Reserve Site Specific Waiver
Edging down from Figueroa Mountain, the reserve has 6000 acres of re – wilding ranch land suitable for research and outdoor education. Over 40 miles of trails bid the nature explorer to learn about California habitats ranging from chaparral to grasslands. Blue oak woodlands and savanna populated by great valley oaks make up classroom space unequaled between walls. Seasonal changes bring wildflowers in the late winter and spring, with ripening fruits and acorns from late spring through the summer. Early fall or winter rains bring “spring” greenery to the hills. Faults create dual boundaries to the subduction zone with unique geologic and botanic features that provide eyewitness opportunities to experience the effects of ancient seabed geology on the living landscape above the Camuesa Fault zone that can be compared with the lower, younger soils. Pillow lava, blue schist, chert and serpentinite provide readily identifiable geo – markers of the unique mid – ocean strip of land thrust up to the surface. Gray pine, buckwheat and yucca thrive there while in the riparian zone there are mulefat, willow, common monkey flower and juncus. Wildlife is abundant with deer, coyote, squirrels usually seen and more shy animals often present and unseen include bobcat, skunk, rattlesnake and weasel. Most birds seen in Santa Barbara County inland from the shore are present or seen seasonally at the pond and meadows or woodlands at Sedgwick.
Curriculum Standards
Combined Photo Release and Waiver
If interested in this location please contact us directly.
Zaca Creek Ranch, a pristine 1,600-acre cattle ranch in the Santa Ynez Valley, preserves a broad stretch of oak woodland and rolling grassland, offering a close look at one of California’s signature inland ecosystems. Mature oaks — the structural backbone of the habitat — provide shade, acorns, and canopy that support a layered community of understory grasses, seasonal wildflowers, and the birds and small mammals that shelter in and around them, making the site a natural setting for discussions of oak woodland ecology, keystone species, and the relationships between canopy cover and understory plant life. The seasonal creek and dramatic sinkhole illustrate how surface water, seasonal rainfall, and soil type shape a landscape and offer a visceral experience of watershed dynamics and erosion. The property’s long history as a Mexican-era land grant, now grazed with an eye toward minimizing disturbance to the land, adds a layer for discussing how human land use interacts with — and can either degrade or help sustain — a native oak woodland over time.
Curriculum Standards
Combined Photo Release and Waiver
In Goleta, this often-overlooked parkland is rich in biodiversity with migratory as well as resident birds present year around. Waterfowl as well as a large variety of songbirds gather for the water and surrounding habitat. Plants vary from exotic palms to native cattails and rushes and attract wild mammals from coyote and fox to gophers, frogs and turtles.
The site of an historical ranch house, the once sizable Goleta bay reached nearly to the present-day small lake. Erosion has filled the bay and created much of the land for present-day residences. A network of trails offers many encounters with the birds and a surprisingly wide variety of plants within short walks. Contrast between the imported plants and the native plants along with the yards of nearby residences are instructive in what is wild and native and what in nature is cultivated.
North Campus Open Space sits on the mesa edge of the UCSB campus where restored coastal wetland, upland grassland, and coastal bluff meet in close proximity, and the site’s ongoing restoration history makes it as much a lesson in ecological recovery as in natural history. The wetland at the heart of the preserve — Devereux Slough — is one of the few remaining coastal lagoons in the Santa Barbara region, and its brackish waters shift in salinity and extent with season and tidal influence, supporting a dynamic community of birds, invertebrates, and aquatic vegetation that changes visibly through the year. Restoration efforts have removed invasive species and reestablished native plantings around the slough margin, making the site an active demonstration of how degraded wetland habitat can be brought back and what that process looks like at different stages of recovery.
The upland grassland and bluff areas surrounding the slough add further habitat contrast, with native bunchgrasses and coastal scrub species establishing alongside remnant patches of invasive ice plant and fennel — a visible record of the ongoing tension between restoration and re-invasion that frames discussions of land management, disturbance, and ecological resilience. The bluff edge above the ocean offers sweeping views of the Santa Barbara Channel and the Channel Islands beyond, connecting the immediate wetland and grassland habitats to the broader coastal system. Shorebirds, raptors, and waterfowl are often present simultaneously in different parts of the preserve, illustrating how a relatively compact site can support a wide range of species by offering varied habitat structure within a short distance.
Curriculum Standards
Combined Photo Release and Waiver
Santa Ynez Valley Botanic Garden provides a close-by opportunity for Valley students to experience nature with the contrast of urban interface and the beginning of wild lands. The site affords opportunities for birding, with the well-cared for collection of native plants. Discussion of preserving natural habitats near local population centers can be coupled with the need for wildfire protection to extend this legacy into the future.
Nature art is often a focal part of our program at the site where we take advantage of picnic tables to focus small groups on learning about nature from hands-on contact and expression of appreciation for nature. Learning proper use of binoculars before an in-field birding experience enhances the success of being able to find and focus on the range of birds.
Combined Photo Release and Waiver
NatureTrack Photo Release and Waiver
Nestled in the Santa Ynez River Valley, Shepherd’s Giving Farm is a 20-acre certified organic farm with a single purpose: grow food and give it all away. Every crop grown at Shepherd’s Giving Farm is harvested and passed directly to Veggie Rescue, whose refrigerated trucks then distribute it at no cost to over 70 nonprofits across Santa Barbara County. Those partners serve the people who need fresh food most: families, seniors, people in recovery, immigrants, unhoused individuals, and children. As a nonprofit farm, the program relies on a growing network of volunteers and community groups, especially during planting and harvest seasons. Starting from scratch in March of this year, Shepherd’s Giving Farm is already producing thousands of pounds of produce each week for donation, from less than 3 acres. Over time, and with the invaluable support of volunteers’ helping hands, the farm will bring more acreage into production, and grow more food for community members in need.
Combined Photo Release and Waiver
NatureTrack Photo Release and Waiver
Martha’s Farm Animal Sanctuary in Buellton occupies a working landscape in the Santa Ynez Valley where rescued farm animals and active agricultural production share the same property, and that combination gives the site an unusual educational range. The vineyard, olive grove, and lavender fields each represent a distinct cultivation system adapted to the valley’s Mediterranean climate — grapevines, olives, and lavender are all drought-tolerant crops with deep roots in agricultural traditions shaped by hot dry summers and cool wet winters — while the rescued animals living alongside the crops add a dimension that few agricultural sites can offer, grounding conversations about animal behavior, domestication, and the relationship between humans and animals in direct, observable experience. The valley floor setting, with the Santa Ynez Mountains visible to the north, connects the farm to the broader watershed and climate system that makes this style of agriculture possible, and the convergence of viticulture, food production, and animal rescue on a single property makes Martha’s Farm a place where agricultural science, ecology, and social values can be explored together, each informing the others in ways that a more narrowly focused site would not allow.
“I hope that all of the teachers at my school will get their kids out into the woods with this program, as I am confident that it is precisely this type of experience that helps kids get excited about science and to cultivate a real respect and reverence for the natural world.”
Specially trained naturalists, who enjoy sharing their knowledge and love of the outdoors with students, lead NatureTrack adventures. Santa Barbara County is one of 35 global biodiversity hotspots giving students the opportunity to explore habitat types ranging from lush coastal wetlands/beaches and dry interior grasslands, to foothill oak woodlands and savannas, to hill slopes covered by coastal scrub and chaparral, to mountain tops of mixed oak and pine forests.
Teachers can specify which topics, NGSS core ideas, or crosscutting concepts they would like to see emphasized to facilitate student’s connection and continuity with in-classroom units of study.
