Grover Beach, CA Outdoor Activities
Recommended Outdoor Activities by Groupon Customers
All 78 acres of the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden are bursting with life. More than 1,000 species of native Californian plants and regional flora line its 5.5 miles of serene, public trails, allowing visitors to witness the overwhelming diversity of the Pacific coastline's plant life. Along with stands of oaks and riparian woodlands, botanical collections inhabit precisely arranged landscapes, echoing the founders' goal from 1926 to create a garden that would "unite the aesthetic, educational and scientific." In 2003, Santa Barbara County rewarded the garden's decades of cultural and scientific contributions, granting County Historic Landmark status to 23 of the acres.
The garden's specimens and displays exist just as much for education as they do for appreciation. Guests can gather landscaping ideas from the Home Demonstration Garden, a cottage surrounded with water-conserving plants. The Japanese Teahouse and Demonstration Garden melds traditional East Asian design with California-native flora. Throughout the grounds, tour guides dispense invaluable information on the displays and the retired tree nymphs that tend them. Additionally, scientific researchers use the facilities in their efforts to both study and conserve numerous rare and endangered species.
Cleaved between the Pacific Ocean and the foothills of Santa Ynez Mountain, Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club is among the oldest polo facilities in the U.S. The Club was established in 1911 and quickly became a focal point of competition and social interaction. In fact, by the 1920s, spending Sunday at the club had already become a celebrated social event. Visitors would don the latest fashions and picnic at the fields, some even hiring helpers to assist with the noonday meal and deliver jokes during intermission.
Although some conventions have changed, the club retains its reputation as an elegant destination to enjoy the “Sport of Kings.” It features a trio of world-renowned polo fields, plus eight tennis courts, a fitness center, and a pool for recreational use. The club still draws some of society’s most noble figures, too—Prince William and Catherine visited during 2011, a trip that saw Prince William compete in a charitable match.
At Santa Barbara Seals Surf School, a Surfing USA accredited program, instructors teach the art of wave riding during private lessons, after school classes, and 10-week camps. Lessons can mix practice on land with time in the water, and cover a wide range of skills, from mounting a board to catching a wave without yelling “Hey, wait!” During camps, beginners spend most of their time learning to ride waves, while more advanced students also travel to select surf spots, and even get a chance to tour the famous Sex Wax factory and visit local board shapers to learn about the history of the surf industry in Santa Barbara.
Crouched behind a broken-down truck, the player hears incoming paintballs smack all over the automobile. Scanning the field, he plots his next move—possibly to the field’s upturned section of corrugated tubing, a large cable spool, or the makeshift plywood blockade. The outdoor fields at River Park Paintball challenge teams to work together through this dilapidated yet sneakily helpful terrain, which evokes the same kind of urban-warfare setting of popular video games. In other areas, stretches of field give players tall, speedball-style inflatable barricades that offer cover from incoming shots. Paintball enthusiasts make up the staff that oversees the fields at all times, ensuring players adhere to safe play and honor house rules, such as washing up before the traditional midday tea and scones. River Park's team requires that players make reservations, as the facility keeps limited hours Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
From the highest point of Adventures Out West's Colorado Springs trail rides, riders on horseback have a view of not just one mountain range, but three. Since giving their first tour in 1973, the guides of Adventures Out West have created many such scenic jaunts through Colorado and Arizona that deposit participants directly into the most beautiful parts of the local geography. Whether soaring over snowcapped mountains from the basket of a hot-air balloon or fly-fishing in the South Platte River, patrons get a chance to interact firsthand with all of nature's local sights, sounds, and whoopee-cushion gags.
Recommended by Frommer's travel guide, Unicorn Balloon Company leads guided excursions through the aerial spectacles of the Sonoran Desert's landscapes and environs. Smoothly ascending sunrise and sunset tours provide an easygoing and elevated trip through the panoramic desert and mountain terrain, which includes resilient flora such as saguaro cacti, palo verde trees, and distant mountain ranges assembled by packs of Paleolithic tailgaters. The wicker baskets float above vegetation and discreetly hover over animal habitats, with occasional views of coyotes, jackrabbits, desert mule deer, and javelinas. Each 100-foot balloon drifts at heights from just above treetop levels to 3,000 feet above the ground, carefully following wind currents to prevent turbulence and stay on the scent trail of musky airplane pilots.
