Rancho Oso: Land of horses and campers

tkscovill ♦ January 1, 2014 ♦ Leave a comment

Today’s image of simplicity: Woodpecker on a pole

This campground was once a horse ranch. I guess it still is a horse ranch, just now there are campers living here too. It’s dusty and dry and definitely southwestern.

Rancho Oso is at the convergence of two mountain ranges just east of Santa Barbara. When you’re here you can only imagine the flat beach of Santa Barbara. These mountains dominate. We are in a canyon. The sun peaks over the eastern side at around 8:00 and sinks behind the western side at around 3:30–not much real daylight, but the daytime temperature is pleasant–70-80 degrees.

craggy mountains

If you love horses, this is the place to stay. They are everywhere. They are well fed and cared for and seem to know that this is their land. I caught this one hiding behind a stump.

horse in the sun

Something different from the regular Thousand Trails cabins. Cute, but small.

cabins

While we’re here we plan to go to Santa Barbara and maybe to Malibu. There is also a little Dutch town called Solvang which Sam used to visit when he was young. We’ll see how things evolve. You know, that whole thing about making plans, remember?