Ojai

Understand

History

In late 2017, the outskirts of the city were burned by the Thomas Fire.

Upper Ojai's emerging cool-climate wine scene has gained recognition from major critics, with estate wineries at elevations above 2,800 feet producing Rhône varieties and Tempranillo from organically farmed vineyards just 10 miles from the Pacific Ocean.

Climate

Upper Ojai sits above the marine fog line at elevations reaching 2,800 feet, just 10 miles from the Pacific Ocean.This creates a marginal cool climate with warm days and cold nights, receiving approximately 21 inches of annual rainfall condensed into a three-month wet season. The combination of elevation, ocean proximity, and dramatic diurnal temperature swings makes Upper Ojai distinctly cooler than the Ojai Valley floor below.

Get in

By car

California State Routes 33 and 150 both go to the western side of the city, and Route 150 also enters it from the eastern side.

Get around

The downtown area is fairly small and quite easy to get around on foot, but for further exploration you will of course need a car.

Go next

• Ventura - Located on the coast 22 miles east of Ojai, Ventura is home to many interesting shops, the historic Mission San Buenaventura, and is the gateway for excursions to the Channel Islands National Park.
• Santa Paula - 17 miles to the east, Santa Paula advertises itself as the "Citrus Capital of the World" and was an early center of California's petroleum industry. It is home to the California Oil Museum, housed in the historic Union Oil Building.
• Carpinteria - This small oceanside town is located 22 miles west of Ojai and offers a salt marsh preserve, tide pools, and a seal and sea lion rookery that is active from December through May. During the first weekend in October Carpinteria plays host to nearly 100,000 visitors at its annual avocado festival, which features the world's largest vat of guacamole.
• Carrizo Plain National Monument - Slightly more than an hour north via Highway 33, this remote national monument is home to the largest remaining native grassland in California. During wet years it boasts spectacular wildflowers in the spring, and Soda Lake is an important wintering area for waterfowl when precipitation is sufficient to flood the seasonal lakebed. The park is also home to Painted Rock, a Native American site that has been adorned with pictographs over thousands of years. Services are extremely limited, with just a small visitor center, two primitive campgrounds, and a handful of marked trails available.