Located about 35 miles west of Santa Barbara and 40 miles south of Santa Maria, Gaviota Hot Springs is just a few miles inland from the coast, located within the boundaries of Gaviota State Park (but not accessed from the main park entry). There are two soaking pools with sandy bottoms along a creek in a hillside grove of oak and palm trees. The smaller pool is just above the larger pool, and the small waterfall that spills from one pool into the other adds to the charm of the setting. The water is often milky and has a strong sulphuric odor, but most soakers are undeterred. Although there may be a "no nudity" sign, visitors ignore it, and nude soaking is typical. Park rangers do not actively enforce the nudity ban and apparently only act only on complaints about nudity. There is a self-pay box at the parking area for state park access. Rangers do patrol the lot frequently, so make sure you have paid the $2 fee before hiking uphill to the springs. Watch out for poison oak along the final spur trail to the springs.

VISUAL RESOURCES

GPS: 34.5026N, 120.2184W

city, county, state, country  Gaviota, Santa Barbara, California, U.S.A.

classification  2 (traditionally nude)

There are 6 placemarks related to this site.