Chumash Painted Cave State Historic Park
*HEAT ALERT: With temperatures set to exceed 110 degrees throughout much of the state this week, California is urging everyone to take extra precautions as they celebrate the Fourth of July. Governor Newsom has directed the Office of Emergency Services to activate its State Operations Center. Read about how California is preparing for this heatwave. The National Weather Service has issued an excessive heat warning for parts of California from 11 a.m. on Tuesday, July 2, through Sunday, July 7, at 8 p.m. PDT. Please be sure to take extra precautions when heading outdoors and know before you go by checking the park’s webpage ahead of time. Visit our safety tips webpage and get the latest on the weather at weather.gov.
The Park is currently OPEN.
Park Facilities
Alaxuluxen, the Chumash name for the Chumash Painted Cave State Historic Park, a small cave located in present day Santa Barbara that remains an important touchstone to Chumash culture and heritage. The walls of the cave are covered in Chumash paintings highlighting the significance of this place for Chumash people historically and today. With support from the California State Parks Foundation Park Improvement Grant, CyArk has collaborated with CA State Parks and Chumash elder Ernestine Ygnacio-De Soto to utilize existing 3D data of the cave captured by CyArk in 2015 to create a freely accessible virtual Tapestry experience. Today, the cave paintings are protected by a metal gate to combat many decades of vandalism. The educational Tapestry experience provides virtual access to this portion of the cave and opportunities for a broad audience to learn about and connect with Chumash history and heritage.
Click here to access the Chumash Painted Cave State Historic Park Tapestry.
For more information, visit CyArk Chumash Painted Cave Project.
The walls of this small cave carved from towering sandstone boulders contain some of the finest remaining rock art created by Chumash Native Americans. A steep path leads to the cave entrance, which is protected by heavy iron grillwork. Anthropologists estimate that the paintings date to the 1600's and earlier. The meaning of these enigmatic images has been lost.
