Siteline | The Turtles in Ojai Have It Good

Having been to visit ostriches, parrots, alpacas, and gibbons, Adam and I had long hoped to explore the Turtle Conservancy in Ojai—but when I reached out years ago, willing to pay basically anything for a tour, I never got a response. More recently, we learned that the organization offers access to members. Sign us up!

The conservancy was founded by Eric Goode—former New York City nightlife impresario, director of “Tiger King” and “Chimp Crazy,” and developer of the forthcoming Hotel El Roblar in Ojai. As New York magazine noted in a profile last month, his compound totals 100 acres, of which the conservancy is a small part. It’s in northeast Ojai, near the Thacher School.

The outfit isn’t really set up for a lot of visitors; booking a time might take a few emails. One benefit of that is that our group of four—Adam’s mom and her friend Joy came along—had a guide all to ourselves. And she was excellent: enthusiastic and knowledgeable, but not at all didactic. I didn’t take any notes, so you’re not going to learn a lot about turtles from me, except for this: turtle is a category that includes tortoises, and tortoises live on land, rather than in water. The Turtle Conservancy specializes in tortoises and freshwater turtles; many other organizations focus on sea turtles.

At 10 a.m., when our tour started, the turtles were just coming out to soak in the sunshine. Some like their back scratched, particularly in the area where the shell segments meet.

You can’t imagine how slowly these fellows ate their greens.

Then we went into a greenhouse, where we met several water turtles. I liked how the one was just lounging in its pool, and how another poked its head out, periscope-style, to see what was up.

My favorites were the cute, curious snake-necked turtles. No touching, though; a bite on the finger evidently feels like a binder clip snapping shut.

Our next stop was the kitchen, where turtle food is made, not where turtles are made into food. On the way in, we stopped to admire some youngsters, and once inside, some hatchlings and an egg in an incubator.

Finally, it was time for the huge Galapagos tortoises. The ones at the conservancy are only about half the size they’ll be when fully mature. They know that human visitors often bring food, so they came running, relatively speaking, out to greet us.

Some of them enjoy having their throat caressed—so much so, that they go into a trance that they take a couple of minutes to snap out of.

And we got to feed them. They can chomp off a good four inches of celery at a time, which means you have to pay attention—they may bite you, but not on purpose.

It’s a sensory experience.

The grounds are extraordinarily beautiful. We all agreed we wouldn’t mind living in the cottage that’s home to the little gift shop. Another perk of membership (at the Spiny Turtle level and above) is being allowed to spend the night in some of the buildings in the compound. There’s a two-night minimum, and while it’s not cheap, it’s largely tax-deductible. That’s something you won’t find on Airbnb….

P.S. Since we were already in east Ojai, we went to The Summit Drive-In, on the road to Santa Paula, for lunch. I’ve always loved that part of the world, and I have fond memories of eating at the Summit from long ago that were mostly based on the atmosphere, or lack thereof. But this time, the burgers—one veggie, one not—were both excellent, with nicely griddled buns and ripe tomatoes.