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UNITED STATES | Santa Barbara, California Travel Guide
Saturday, December 21, 2024
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Mission Canyon, Montecito and Hope Ranch
Mission Canyon
This is where the Santa Barbara Mission is located, on a hill on Laguna Street, overlooking the city and itself surrounded by the shallow foothills of the Santa Ynez range. Established in 1786, this was the tenth mission built by Franciscan fathers in California, and the only one with two identical towers, frequently refered to as the “Queen of the Missions.” There is a mission museum here, devoted to mission history, as well as a small garden at the rear, with exotic trees and plants.
Nearby, too, on Mission Canyon Road is the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, with 65 acres given over to California trees, plants, flowers and cacti, all in natural settings. There are actually 12 different garden sections here, each representing a California habitat, such as the Redwoods, Woodlands, Meadow, Desert, Island and Canyon sections, the last with an historic dam and aqueduct built by native Indians in 1806.
Also in the vicinity, on Pueta Del Sol, is the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, with excellent dioramas of the life and ways of the Chumash Indians as well as the ocean shelf between the Santa Barbara coast and the Channel Islands, and exhibits of indigenous birds, flora and marine life. There is also a planetarium here.
Another, the Brooks Institute of Photography, on a perch in the Santa Ynez foothills overlooking the city, located on Alameda Padre Serra, is renowned the world over for its excellent instruction in the art of photography. It’s well worth a visit, especially its gallery displaying students’ works.
Montecito and Hope Ranch
Two of the West Coast’s most exclusive residential neighborhoods can also be found here: Montecito Village, which lies along the Santa Ynez foothills at the northeastern end of the city, and where you can search out the small Montecito shopping district and poke around in its antique stores and galleries; and Hope Ranch, at the southeastern end of Santa Barbara, centered around Los Palmas Drive, situated amid rolling hills and age-old palms. Both have their very own, very exclusive golf and country clubs, the latter with a lagoon as well.
Last updated February 12, 2012
Posted in United States | Santa Barbara
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