February 19, 2010
My next check box on this trip was the Chumash Painted Cave north of Santa Barbara. It is on a narrow road in the Santa Ynez Mountains, and although it is a State Historic Park, there is no parking lot. You have to park your car alongside the road and hope your car and yourself do not slide down the road embankment. Also you will not find a park ranger, only a metal gate restricting access to the cave with the pictographs outside your reach but within view.
The pictographs are vibrant, and on this rainy and dreary day of my visit, I imagined a group of Chumash with a warm fire waiting out the storm and drawing on the sandstone wall a story of their dreams. I have dreams too, but with modern conveniences, I did not have to wait out the storm. I soon was back on the road with Lompoc less than an hour away.
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