Within a two-hour drive of San Luis Obispo, Santa Maria, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Ojai, Bakersfield, and Los Angeles, the Carrizo Plain National Monument is accessible by millions of residents in the southern half of the state...yet just far enough away to retain its sense of remoteness, solitude, and wildness.
A LAND LOST IN TIME...
The Carrizo Plain National Monument is located in the southeastern corner of San Luis Obispo County, near the junction with Santa Barbara, Ventura, and Kern counties. Approximately 50 miles long and 15 miles across, the plain is flanked by the Caliente Range to the west, and by the Temblor Range to the east.
Soda Lake -- one of the dominant features of the Carrizo Plain -- has no inlet or outlet, and is the largest remaining alkali wetland in southern California.
The oldest section of the San Andreas Fault bisects the valley floor, and Painted Rock -- a natural sandstone amphitheater adorned with many pictographs created by the Chumash, Salinan, and Yokuts peoples over many thousands of years -- remains one of the many natural and cultural wonders of the Carrizo Plain.
Temblor Range. Photo copyright Ronald L. Williams. Used with permission, all rights reserved.