This popular Central Coast campground is closing for a year due to major upgrades

A popular camping site and area for outdoor activities in Santa Barbara County is scheduled to close for about a year to allow for major upgrades.

El Capitan State Beach will shut down for about one year starting Sept. 1 for construction of a new entrance road, bridge, kiosk and trail, according to the California Department of Parks and Recreation website.

The date might get pushed back from Sept. 1, according to Dena Bellman, district planning chief and public information officer for State Parks’ Channel Coast District.

“However, due to the project location and facilities being improved, the full park closure will be in effect,” she said in an email. “We expect that there will be no authorized access to the park during the construction as there is one entrance, and that is the location of the planned improvements.”

During normal operations, half of El Capitan State Beach and Refugio State Beach camping are closed during off-peak seasons, and Gaviota State Park is fully closed to camping for part of the winter season as well, Bellman said.

“This provides efficiencies for operations while accommodating typical park visitation,” she said. “To accommodate the closure of El Capitan State Beach during construction, our intention is to keep Refugio State Beach and Gaviota State Park fully open. There are times when weather forces the closure of Gaviota State Park, and that may still happen.”

The project at El Capitan includes several improvements, including the widening of the entrance road to accommodate recreational vehicles and replacement of the bridge over the creek, improving water transmission and removing existing steelhead barriers. It also features the creation of an off-pavement ADA accessibility trail from the park entry down to the kiosk to facilitate safer pedestrian and nonvehicular access to the growing number of park visitors accessing El Capitan State Beach from neighboring parks, Bellman said.

In addition, plans call for the demolition of the two small antiquated park buildings and kiosk and replacement with a more modern entry kiosk that will allow two lanes, according to Bellman.

The project has seen a one- to two-year delay, so California parks officials would like to see it come to fruition, Bellman said.

“This project has been in the planning stages for a number of years. Projects like this do not happen quickly,” she said.

State Parks is offering the project to better accommodate the number of park visitors, Bellman told Noozhawk.

“The park was not built to accommodate the visitation we see today, thus causing some safety concerns and putting an inordinate stress on the parks infrastructure,” Bellman said. “Our hope is to continue to bring these beneficial projects in order to ensure recreational opportunity and access at El Capitan into the future.”

Funding for the project is sourced from a combination of money from Proposition 84, the voter-approved Safe Drinking Water, Water Quality and Supply, Flood Control, River and Coastal Protection Bond Act of 2006, and resource agency grants, according to Bellman.

“Some of which have constraints on the spending time frame that we must comply with,” she said. “COVID has been an additional challenge that has caused unforeseen delays.”

El Capitan State Beach is located off Highway 101 and about 17 miles northwest of Santa Barbara.

In late January, State Parks officials reopened campground sites for existing reservation holders after the state’s decision to cancel COVID-19 regional stay-at-home orders for all of California. The department rolled out a phased approach to reopen other campground sites for new reservations, according to the California State Parks website.

Reservations for parks can be made up to six months in advance, so at seven months out officials closed reservations in expectation of the project at El Capitan State Beach.

“We understand that this causes concern for some; the timing does not seem convenient,” Bellman said. “We are making every effort to accommodate similar camping and day use along the Gaviota Coast during construction.”