Looking south in the Cuyama Valley towards the Sierra Madre Mountains The Cuyama Valley is a valley along the Cuyama River in central California, in northern Santa Barbara, southern San Luis Obispo, southwestern Kern, and northwestern Ventura counties. It is a sparsely inhabited area containing two significant towns – Cuyama and New Cuyama – and is largely used for ranching, agriculture, and oil and gas production. California State Route 166 runs along most of the length of the valley, connecting the coastal communities of Santa Maria and Arroyo Grande with the Central Valley near Bakersfield.

Geography

The valley encompasses an area of approximately 300 square miles. It is bounded on all sides by mountains, and the Cuyama River escapes west through a narrow canyon to the Pacific Ocean between the Sierra Madre Mountains on the south and the La Panza Range on the north. The headwaters of the Cuyama River are just north of Pine Mountain Summit on California State Route 33, and the valley widens from there to its maximum width near the junction with Route 166 and the corner of the four counties, and then narrows again as the river exits to the ocean. The agricultural portions are in the center, near to the major highway intersection and the two towns, where the alluvium is rich and the valley is a wide floodplain.Lantis, Steiner, Karinen, p. 193-4