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Arroyo Burro/Hendry's Beach
updated: Jun 11, 2011, 9:30 AM
By the dedicated staff
You have to be a true old-time Santa Barbarian to remember the days when the Hendry family lived next to what locals still call Hendry's Beach.
After all, they were living there from 1890 until about 1918. Somehow, the name stuck, and nearly 100 years later, stalwarts on the Edhat comments board like to remind us that it is Arroyo Burro Beach formally, and insist it be called nothing else. Often voted Best Beach in local surveys, you'll find the county-maintained Arroyo Burro/Hendry's at the ocean end of Las Positas Road. Take a quick right at the T-stop with Cliff Drive, and the beach will be on your immediate left.
There's so much to say about the beach with two names, but we'll start by telling you that is the Edhat Dog's favorite place to go to the beach. Perhaps it should be renamed the Edhat Dog's Beach, just to clear up this naming debate once and for all. The Dog and her humans have taken many trips to the beach to count dogs and other stuff, and you can see the results of their labors in the links at the end of this story.
Here are a few great reasons to visit:
 Free parking (for now). Santa Barbara County plans to pull revenue from its beach parking lots sometime in the near future, so park at Arroyo Burro for free while you can. It can be tough to find a spot in the lot on particularly warm summer weekend days. But more often than not you'll get lucky and snag a spot. A residential neighborhood across the street ends up being overflow parking for the beach on the busiest days.
 Surf may not be up, but at least it's close. At best, Hendry's is a straightforward shore break when it comes to surfing, but you'll often see surfers out there anyway. As Paul Costales put it put it in an Edhat column a few years back, "Hendry's, aka Arroyo Burro, aka The Pit, aka some of the worst water quality in town thanks to the nearby slough, isn't a place you go out of your way to surf. You don't have to fear LA coming up to surf the dirty Pit. You surf it because it's close." And that's what makes Hendry's such a great beach, really - That old real estate adage - location, location, location.
 Dogs are OK (well, almost). Pets need to be on a leash within the jurisdiction of the county beach. It's a bit of a line in the sand, though, where you cross over to the beach below the Douglas Family Preserve. Common local practice is that the cliff line on the far (east) side of the slough mouth is the delineating boundary. From there, you can walk nearly two miles on the beach with your dog playing in the water nearby. Summer is the best time to do this, as the low tides and increased sand pack leave lots of room.
 A bite at the Boathouse at Hendry's Beach. There're probably a few holdouts who are still calling it "The Brown Pelican," but the restaurant at Arroyo Burro changed hands a few years ago and is a pretty nice place to eat these days. A renovation made the picture windows looking out on the water even bigger, there's an indoor/outdoor bar, and the patio with heat lamps and those cool burning-sand features is romantic even on a winter evening. The menu is mostly seafood and California cuisine. You can see it here
 You'll want to stay all day. If you grew up in California, or along the coast somewhere, you probably had those beach days where all you did was play in the water, chase your friends around, eat snacks that had sand in them, and play in the water some more. There was no whining about wanting to go home and your parents were happy sitting on the sand under an umbrella with a book and a sensible hat. This is the sort of beach where you can do that. Call it whatever name you like.
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THIS LOCATION ON THE MAP
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It's a blustery President's Day out there. Wind, waves, rain and puddles. Not too many people. Some shots from Arroyo Burro and Leadbetter. [pics]
(02/17/09)
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For dirty dogs, two local business owners have teamed up to install a post-walk wash station for pets at Arroyo Burro Beach.
(02/28/09)
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To celebrate 9/9/9, the dedicated staff went to Hendrys to count canines. We will have the full story Sunday. Here are some photos to tide you over. [pics]
(09/10/09)
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Arroyo Burro Beach sunset last night after another warm summer-like day. Photos by Eric Roland. [pics]
(02/18/10)
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I was walking through the Hendry's Beach/Arroyo Burro parking lot today and was shocked to see this cross planted on the hillside steep slope. [pics]
(12/04/10)
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Rosie Dyste was at Arroyo Burro Beach for another amazing December sunset. This can be the best time of year in Santa Barbara. [pics]
(12/13/10)
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Nancy snapped this shot of a low tide sunset Thursday at Hendry's/Arroyo Burro Beach. It was a beautiful cloudy evening. [pic]
(12/25/10)
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Blakeymoe's best shot of the year is of the driftwood pile for the cormorants east of Hendry's/Arroyo Burro Beach. [pics]
(12/27/10)
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One of Kathee's favorite pix for 2010 was a sunset on Arroyo Burro beach aka Hendry's. "I mean I was shouting out loud my wows," she writes. [pic]
(12/31/10)
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Just another beautiful end to a beautiful day at Hendry's/Arroyo Burro beach. Eric Roland photo. [pic]
(01/12/11)
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The new sustainable high tech lighting at Arroyo Burro Beach County Park
provides nighttime illumination at an affordable price. [pics]
(03/01/11)
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Two photos in shades of blue from Arroyo Burro/Hendry's beach on Saturday. [pic]
(04/11/11)
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