Entry No. 4 — the Santa Barbara file — filed under: Chumash rock art

Chumash Painted Cave State Historic Park

A locked steel grate is the only thing between you and Chumash cosmological paintings — some 200 to 1,000+ years old — inside a small sandstone cave reached via a one-lane, switchback dirt pullout off Painted Cave Road too tight for trailers or RVs.

The move: Drive the narrow mountain road up from San Marcos Pass with a flashlight (flash photography is banned to protect the pigment), peer through the gate at the ochre pictographs, then keep climbing over the pass for a valley-overlook picnic.

📍 San Marcos Pass
💸 Free
⚡ Up for anything
🌗 Outdoors

Where: Painted Cave Rd, Santa Barbara, CA 93105

Hours: Added 2026-07-20 — confirm current hours before you go.

#Chumash rock art #hidden cave #ancient pictographs #state historic park

Plan a visit & invite your people →

Further reading: parks.ca.gov · Wikipedia

last checked: 2026-07-20