Enjoy a Winter day at the beach! Tajiguas Beach is a few miles north of Refugio Beach in Goleta. We will be hunting whalebone and concretions with petrified wood enclosed in rock, plus agates. Tyrone LaFay is the trip leader. EVERYONE MUST SIGN IN FIRST.

Meeting time is 2:30pm at the parking spot on southbound 101. Make a U-turn 2.5 miles past the Refugio exit (will be on the left from fast lane), and park in the first turnout space (.3 mile). See link to the custom Google map at the bottom of this column for explicit directions.

We will be searching for fossil whale bone, beach agates, and occasionally petrified wood. Plan to bring a bucket, backpack or other sturdy collecting container, small magnifier, sunblock, a hat, sunglasses, a jacket/windbreaker and a snack or lunch. Be prepared in case your shoes/feet get wet. Weather can be cool or warm this time of year at the beach; dress in layers. Parking is next to the Southbound 101 freeway, so pull as far away from the road as you can. I will have a VGMS Field Trip sign in front of my Black Ford F150 truck. Come sign in first; l’ll show you what to look for by displaying examples, and lead a group down to the beach via a trail.

A -1.89ft low tide starts at 4 pm so we will be on the beach starting about 3 pm to take advantage of declining tides for a couple of hours. The trip ends no later than 5:30 pm (or dusk, whichever comes first).

Example whale bones found at or near Tajiguas beach, and a few cabs made from the rough collected :


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