If you ride this trail, do it in conjunction with the Goleta Beach Trail or Maria Ygnacio Bike Path since it's so short. The locals must love this since for the most part it's quiet, away from roads, and leads to the beach. It seems ideal for the neighborhoods that back up to it for the last couple of miles. If I lived there I'd probably be on it most every day headed for the beach!

Over the years on our visits to the Santa Barbara area, we've ridden the Goleta Beach Trail. Utilizing the probably now somewhat obsolete Santa Barbara County Bike Map (copyright 2000), we followed what was called the Coast Route. The Class I bike path starts near the corner of Storke and El Colegio, so that's where we would park and unload the bikes. In the summer months it's a great place to start your Goleta Beach ride since you add some distance to it, plus you can peddle through the nearly deserted UCSB campus to the Goleta Beach Trail trailhead.
After riding down to Goleta Beach County Park and Goleta Pier, the Coast Route turns inland allows you to pedal alongside Atascadero Creek. Today that trail is called Obern Trail, a lovely ride in itself. Another option is a spur off the Obern Trail just beyond Patterson Avenue called the Maria Ygnacio Bike Path. This will give you some uphill and through the neighborhoods of Goleta.
The Goleta Beach Trail is a beautiful, ridiculously short ride with sensational ocean and mountain views. If you are going to ride this trail, you might as well combine it with Obern and/or Maria Ygnacio and burn a few more calories!

We rode this trail between the marina and bird refuge a few years ago. The photo op highlight was peddling our bikes between the rows of giant palm trees for that stereotypical California beach scene, but for a couple of native southern Californians palm trees are no big deal. In addition, the ride is so short it just wasn't worth getting the bikes out of the SUV.
This trail feels most appropriate for tourists, walkers, joggers, skateboarders, and vendors renting those quadcycle things to families.

Connected to this path from the Obern Trail (see comments for that trail). Rode to end of trail. Trail follows along creek and through residential areas, although stays within the green space. Trail is paved and like others in area not real wide but does the job. Noted a number of connector trails and would have been fun to have more time to explore these connections. Maybe next time.

After a short warm up on the Goleta Beach Trail (see comments for that trail), started ride from Goleta Beach Park and rode to end at Arroyo Road. Signage for the trail indicates this as Obern Trail, didn’t seen any signage for Atascadero Creek. The trail is paved, most of it is just wide enough for travel both directions but not a wide trail. The trail is older needing some overdue maintenance. We encountered a number of walkers and other bikers using the trail. Wasn’t a problem navigating around them. Trail is along the green space next to creek and away from traffic. Nice to have a quiet place without traffic. We connected to the Maria Ygnacio Bike Path from the Obern Trail (see comments for that trail).

Began ride at Goleta Beach Park and rode trail to UCSB and back. Trail is short and fine for connecting to UCSB. Otherwise not anything to brag about. We used this as a short warm up for the next trail starting from the park. See comments for Atascadero Creek Trail (Obern Trail).

Started our ride at west parking lot of Shoreline Park. Needed to ride the bike lane on the street before connecting to the actual bike path at east end of park. The bike path is paved but not real wide but does work, a wider path would be better for walkers and bikers. We rode to the end of the path at the bird refugee. This path is nice for a slow cruise along the beach front. Plan to dodge the many walkers on the bike path, a number of them aren’t paying any attention to the bike traffic. It seems like maybe the planners got the main section of the path reversed. All the walkers want to be on the bike path which is closest to the beach rather than the wide sidewalk 25 feet further away from the beach. If needing to ride fast, there is a nice designed bike lane on the street.

I just rode the entire trail and found that the western end of the trail is gated off at N. Blosser Rd. A sign on the gate shows "No trespassing" on the levee. Trail is mostly hard packed gravel.

There's good parking at the East end of the trail. Exit 101 and go toward Avila. Turn right at the first road (about 1/4 mile) and go over the bridge. The beginning of the trail is on the left and the parking is on the right. There is now a camera on a pole and the parking lot is patrolled due to thefts last year.

The trail itself is fairly well maintained except for an area where roots have affected the asphalt.

The trail gets very crowded on the weekends and holidays between 9 am and 3 pm. There are dog walkers, joggers, kids and families riding bikes, and people walking. It's a good idea to have a bell.

At the end of the trail, you can continue out to the port, an extra 1.1 miles or just ride up to the town of Avila. There's a nice coffee shop across from the beach at the South end of the shops that also sells boxes of water. :-)

Parking and starting in Avila is more difficult as beachgoers will take up the parking, especially between 9 am and 2 or 3 pm. It is possible to park on Winter weekdays.

The County is extending the trail to connect it with downtown.