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The Santa Ynez Valley is on the inland side of the coastal mountains that form a backdrop to Santa Barbara. The road from Santa Barbara twists its way over the San Marcos Pass with panoramic views (on a clear day) of the ocean and the Channel Islands. The impracticality of building a large commuter freeway over the mountains has so far kept the valley distinctly isolated from urban development, leaving it for recreation, agriculture, and wineries.
Cachuma Lake is a manmade reservoir providing Santa Barbara with tap
water that looks a lot better than it tastes. The lake is also an
attractive and popular recreation area for camping, fishing, and boating
(but no swimming is permitted).
Much of the valley is agricultural, including cattle and horse ranches
and apple orchards. The soil and climate around the little town of Los
Olivos is also good for grapes, and vintners are working to put the
valley on the map of California wine regions. Some wineries supplement
their income and marketing with tours and tastings.
Nojoqui Falls is a county park in the Santa Ynez Valley. The park is a
popular gathering place on weekends for picnics and club outings, but on
a weekday spring afternoon it’s delightfully peaceful. A short hike past
the picnic areas leads to the falls, which plunge 50 meters. The name
Nojoqui apparently comes from the local Chumash Indian language.
It’s correctly pronounced NAH-ho-ee, but nobody is sure what it
means.
About 10 kilometers from Nojoqui Falls is Solvang, the Santa Ynez
Valley’s tourist lodestone. Danish immigrants settled there in 1911 to
build a school and village that would preserve their heritage and
culture. They named it “sunny valley,” presumably because the Santa Ynez
Valley can get quite sunny and warm. When tourists started arriving to
sample the cuisine and architecture, the Danes knew they had something
worth exploiting.
If Disney ever decided to build a Danish theme park, it surely would
look just like Solvang. In several square blocks of caricatured
Scandinavian architecture there are scores of kitschy shops with
costumed shopkeepers, roofs with green tiles and imitation storks’
nests, and four windmills. There’s even a replica of Copenhagen’s
“Little Mermaid” statue, plus a park and museum dedicated to Hans
Christian Andersen. The one genuine thing in Solvang is the cornucopia
of food. There are numerous restaurants where you can sample Danish
smorgasbord or aebleskiver, the spherical hybrid of a pancake and
a doughnut served with powdered sugar and jam. If you’ve got any room
left you can graze the equally-numerous bakeries, where you’ll find an
endless variety of irresistibly delectable pastries, cookies, and
confections.
After a visit to Solvang you might crave absolution for a multitude of
sins involving sugar, butter, and chocolate. Mission Santa Inés
is conveniently just across the road. The Franciscans founded it in 1804
as the 20th (and penultimate) California mission. With mountains
isolating the valley from the Santa Barbara and La Purisima missions,
the Franciscans saw a need for a new facility that could conveniently
“serve” the local Chumash population. They named the mission for Saint
Agnes, “patroness of bodily purity and chastity.” In naming the valley
(and a town), Americans in the late 19th century misspelled
Inés as Ynez.
The Mission has its own version of a theme park. Next to the church,
overlooking a field where the mission’s grist mill once stood, is a
shady tree-lined grove with an array of crosses. Complete with painted
“blood,” each cross has a small painting depicting an event in the
Crucifixion story. So when you visit Danishland, don’t forget the side
trip to Calvary Adventure!
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