After the Thomas Fire and subsequent catastrophic Montecito debris flows wrought their damage along the South Coast, there has been considerable debate about local trails, their rehabilitation and future use.
I’ve noted a pleasant increase in the numbers of hikers on the Rattlesnake Canyon Wilderness Trail, the Jesusita Trail and other undamaged popular trails, although usage also has sprung back strongly on the Romero Canyon Trail despite the water damage.
Given the recent summer heat and extended drought, the deeper backcountry hikes along the Manzana or over to the Sisquoc seem a bit extreme, although I recommended two long hikes there in July.
I’m suggesting a barely-out-of-town day hike up the moderate Gaviota Peak Trail as a local alternative, but still off our local trails (6.2 miles round-trip).
Powering my old Ford truck up to 60 mph, I enter Highway 101 northbound on the Mission Street on-ramp. About a half-hour later, I park in the shade at the inland Gaviota State Park (not at the beach) and notice the trip odometer reads 33.6 miles. There is room here for about eight cars, and the old-fashioned State of California payment system works just fine.
After taking the small manila envelope, I fold and then place two $1 bills in it, lick the seal closed and tear off the other section, which becomes the stub I leave visible in the driver’s side front windshield. The sealed envelope drops into a small slit atop a pole. A state worker collects these envelopes once a week.
One has to compare this quaint but efficient self-service system with the cumbersome and money-losing scheme the U.S. Forest Service privatized and awarded to the Parks Management Co. at Paradise, including Red Rock Campground.
This inland section of the 2,800-acre Gaviota State Park has several restrictions, and these are listed at the kiosk where you park. The restrictions include no dogs, no firearms, no overnight camping nor fires, nor any motorized vehicle.
Since portions of the larger inland park are often contiguous with the adjacent Los Padres National Forest, this area harbors considerable life, including mountain lions, bears, condors and rattlesnakes. A speeding car struck and killed a black bear crossing Highway 101 on Aug. 13 near the Three Bridges area, as Noozhawk’s Janene Scully reported.
The easier of two routes to 2,460-foot Gaviota Peak, and the one I chose, follows a broad fire road for 3.1 miles until you reach the peak. After your initial steep, one-quarter-mile uphill climb from the park entrance, you see the key sign and go left toward “Gaviota Peak.”
The warning plaque about mountain lions in the area is serious since there was a lion attack on a 9-year-old boy in the park in 1992, and this danger is another reason not to bring dogs along on this trek. If you decide to push yourself, the 2,100-foot elevation gain will make you pant and forget your troubles back in town!
The main Gaviota Peak Trail offers a shortcut that doubles as a path to the well-known Gaviota Hot Springs. These waters are barely warm, in my opinion, but really interesting and seemed pretty clean. When I passed through very early on a mid-September day, there was no one present, but the usual stench of sulfur lent a decadent, rotten-eggs odor.
This side-path quickly rejoins the main and well-cleared fire road. Mountain bikers like this ride, and I saw many tire tracks but encountered no cyclists. There are chaparral bushes such as chamise and ceanothus as well as flat leaf summer holly lining the north-facing road. Because of this north-facing quality, for most of the road there is plenty of morning shade, and some of the ancient downed oaks assume weird shapes.
If you had chosen the “Trespass Trail” option at the key sign, this would become part of a 6.6-mile scenic loop leading you back down to the main Gaviota Peak Trail described earlier (wear long pants for this one). The elevation gain is the same and the views are better, but there is some bushwhacking and scrambling on the Trespass Trail route.
The vistas from either path up to Gaviota Peak will amaze you, oblige some halts for dropped-mouth admiration and perhaps a photograph or two. When you get to the final ridge, make a right and climb steeply up to some boulders, where you will find the round sign-in metal box with its fancy metal lid incised with “Gaviota Peak Elv. 2458.”
While my specific day featured considerable clearing by midmorning, the marine layer never fully dissipated, so there were always wisps of fog to charm one’s thinking and obscure the ocean. This kept the sea an elusive metaphor and made me look inland (lead photo).
Back in the day, I would jog the broad fire road — about 55 minutes to the top of Gaviota Peak. This September, I needed more than two hours to hike to the top, but it felt just as good!
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» Driving directions: Take Highway 101 north past Goleta and continue inland through the Gaviota Tunnel. In just a few more miles, take the Highway 1/Lompoc off-ramp. At the stop, make an extreme right turn and drive back a half-mile on the frontage road that ends at the inland park entrance. Remember to have two $1 bills for the envelope. This section of Gaviota State Park opens at 8 a.m. and closes at 6 p.m.
— Dan McCaslin is the author of Stone Anchors in Antiquity, and has written extensively about the local backcountry. He serves as an archaeological site steward for the U.S. Forest Service in the Los Padres National Forest. He welcomes reader ideas for future Noozhawk columns, and can be reached at cazmania3@gmail.com. Click here to read additional columns. The opinions expressed are his own.
