Jalama Beach

I looked at my various on line tools for finding a campsite and saw this place called Jalama Beach. It is right on the coast almost due west of Santa Barbara. I read as much as I could, and the main issue was the road getting to the place is steep and winding. There was also some issue with mud slides from the recent storm. We decided to go for it, and are so glad we did.

The road is rough and has a couple of serious hills, but nothing we could not handle. When we topped that last hill and looked down to the beach we both just said, "WOW". We did not have a reservation, so the next issue was do they have a spot we can fit in. They have a row of walk in sites. All were empty. The one on the end (10A) was open and was $25 with no hook ups. We are next to the store, but the view is amazing.

They have some rows up high that have electric. I think they are $40 per night. Beach side campsites with no hookups are $45. We had no cell signal and no OTA TV. The Wi-Fi in the park only worked if you were close to a bathroom and then was not great. The store was nice and had a nice menu including the famous Jalama Burger. We decided to have them for dinner one night. Two burgers with one large order of fries was $20, but very good.

It was very windy the first few days we were there, but also sunny. We never had to get the generator out in the 4 days we were there. We went for many walks on the beach and just sat and looked out our windows at the amazing view. It was one of our all time best views.

The wind brought out the kite surfers. I could sit and watch those guys for hours.

The beach is fairly rocky. We saw a number of people out surf fishing. I talked to a few of them and all were having good luck. I would have gone, but the California fishing license was just too expensive. I was still recovering from my cold anyway. By the end of the 4 days, I was feeling pretty good. Here are a few more shots to show off the beauty of this place.

Kim on a beach. No surprise there. 

Sunsets? You want to talk sunsets... well the Pacific sunsets are not as good as the gulf side of Florida, but we had some nice ones while we were there.

There was the Jalama Creek just behind our rig that cut the beach in half. If you wanted to go north on the beach you had to cross the cold creek. We had walked south a number of times, but I wanted to see what was up north. Kim decided to sit this one out. So, I took off my shoes and crossed the cold and rocky creek. I was able to walk about 2 miles up the beach. It was beautiful and I was all by myself.

This was as far as I could go.

We awoke the last morning to beautiful sunshine and very little wind. The surfers started showing up and headed out to catch a wave. I delayed our departure by an hour or so to watch them take on the break.

I got one good video of this guy shredding this wave.

Our time at Jalama Beach (Pronounced "Halama") was quite memorable. The locals we met really did not want me to write about it. They want to keep this place a secret. I would have to say, if you are in the area, you have to check it out. We loved it!