arts & entertainment

LOCAL AREA INFORMATION

The Santa Ynez Valley

The serene Santa Ynez Valley is in northern Santa Barbara County, a two-hour drive from Los Angeles and only 30 minutes northwest of Santa Barbara. The rare eastwest California valley is bordered by the Santa Ynez Mountain Range to the south and the San Rafael Mountain Range to the north. Either of two routes from Santa Barbara take you to the valley: a coastal trip up Highway 101 through the historical Gaviota Pass, or the San Marcos Pass and Cachuma Lake route via scenic Highway 154.

Five distinctive communities encompass the 100 square mile valley of less than 25,000 residents: the highly noted Danish heritage city of Solvang, home to Old Mission Santa Ines and the Alisal Guest Ranch, the western township of Santa Ynez, Victorian influenced communities of Los Olivos and Ballard and the famed Pea Soup Andersen’s road stop city of Buellton. Santa Ynez is an area of majestic beauty and tranquility with rolling hills profoundly populated with ancient oaks. Once primarily recognized as the Arabian horse capital of the United States the valley now houses a myriad of equine breeds, sprawling horse ranches, cattle ranches, Alpaca farms, numerous vineyards and wineries, row crop farming, Lavender farms, olive orchards and other agriculture activities.

The mild winters and warm summers with cool evenings are affected by coastal air currents. On a typical winter day the temperature is in the 50’s and about 30 degrees at night, with summer days in the 90’s and 60’s at night. Sunshine is abundant as noted by the appropriately name of Solvang meaning “sunny fields”.