When you want to entice the family into an easy wintertime backcountry hike, consider choosing the glorious North Fork Trail into the Matilija Wilderness.
The Matilija Wilderness behind Ojai is the smallest of our five nearby federal primitive zones at 29,600 acres, and boasts two major creeks bedecked with lush riparian growth and shaded by tall trees including bay, sycamore, oak, and alder.
This hike has several extensions if you want more, and because most of it is very close to the flowing creek, it’s absolutely ideal for youngsters and family picnics.
The driving portion is shorter in time than motoring to Nira Camp (an hour; see last column about Coldwater), and the road head at the end of Matilija Canyon Road is demarcated by a barred turnaround with ample parking.
At this point you are just 11 miles from downtown Ojai. (See 4.1.1.)
When I hiked along the North Fork on a very cold late December morning, there was just one other group at this road head, consisting of 10 intrepid young hikers.
They told me they were going past my North Fork trail turnoff and would go up the main Matilija Creek via Blue Heron Ranch to well-known Matilija Falls (not an official USFS trail).
During my six hours on the North Fork Trail, I never encountered any other humans.
After walking around the heavy bar and hiking on the dirt road through the privately owned Matilija Sanctuary Ranch — please stay on the road and respect the owners — you proceed 0.7 mile to the turnoff onto the signed (Upper) North Fork Matilija Canyon Trail (23W07).
The photo’s blank white space is where there was once a topographic map that someone has thoughtlessly torn away.
Somewhere in this small federal wilderness was the Ventureño Chumash village site called Mat ilha, and Jan Timbrook informs us that these ingenious Native Americans went to the Mat ilha area to collect pine pitch while gathering piñon nuts (her excellent Chumash Ethnobotany 2007 p. 145).
The trail is exceptionally well-maintained and pleasant, with little elevation gain, and you quickly cross (big) Matilija Creek’s dry stony creekbed. (After our recent heavy rainfall, this crossing may be impassable: navigate with great care or turn back.)
Once you’ve forded the big creek, continue another 0.7 mile on a wide footpath to Matilija Camp, situated along the gushing North Fork Matilija Creek. This was once a jeep road that was used as recently as the 1960s.
Shady Matilija Camp, sometimes termed “lower” Matilija Camp, is a very spacious site with an upper section for big groups, and a smaller adjoining area, with a total of four iron fire grates.
Since a large Boy Scout group could enter at anytime, I’d select another of the many lovely “free camps” for an overnight involving fewer than five packers.
Continuing on with the singing music of the creek echoing in your ears, it’s another easy 2.5 miles to Middle Matilija Camp.
Along your way, you spot masses of the russet-colored California buckwheat, and also garner fabulous vistas back south toward the mountains near Ojai.
Whereas Matilija Camp is highly overused, Middle Matilija feels fresher, and the two separated iron grills offer two areas for lunch or overnight camping. Open fires are currently banned during this drought.
At this point you’re involved with a 7.8 mile round trip, and need to eat a hearty lunch and consider your options.
If you have children along, this is a perfect ending area, with plenty of space to horse around in the water and play, explore an interesting geological area, or even take a nap (which I did on my recent trip)!
An extension is to push on another 1.8 miles to the much more rustic Upper Matilija Camp — but now you’re enmeshed in a 11 mile round trip.
If you want more and feel like a severe workout, continue to 3,800 ft. Maple Camp, the last overnight spot on the North Fork Trail: it’s now a 14.2 mile demanding venture that I don’t recommend for younger children or anyone in poor shape.
This hike is not recommended after significant winter rain.
Along these upper reaches, the hiker witnesses fascinating uplifts in the Santa Ynez Mountains’ fractured geology, as well as some enchanting pools of water that seem to belie the fifth year of drought we’re now enduring.
Matilija Canyon captures the fascinating contradiction we observe in such arid low mountains: You can show children how this creek actually forms a sort of oasis surrounded by the much drier, hard chaparral-clad slopes rising above the “riparian corridor” forming the narrow canyon passage.
There’s a striking contrast between the alders and sycamores growing in the creek and the heat-crushed steep hillsides looming overhead.
Upon pondering this contrast, the hiker realizes that while Matilija North Fork is a fine winter and early spring hiking ground, it isn’t recommended for late spring or summer hiking unless you begin hiking around 6 a.m.
While most of the 3.9 mile trek to Middle Matilija Camp takes place “down in” the wet corridor of the creek itself, all the while the great vault of bright blue skies soars above, making a stark contrast with the dark yin creekbed.
Back in 1903 renowned nature writer Mary Austin commented that, “Out West, the west of the mesas and the unpatented hills, there is more sky than any place in the world. It does not sit flatly on the rim of earth, but begins somewhere out in the space in which the earth is poised, hollows more, and is full of clean winey winds. — The Land of Little Rain (Penguin Nature Classics [1988], p. 59)
4-1-1 North Matilija Day Hike
Distance: 7.8 mile round-trip day hike ideal for children 6 and up and family hiking
Driving directions: from Santa Barbara take the 101 south to Ojai via Hwy 33; at the Y when to get to Ojai go left toward Nordhoff High School and continue on Hwy 33 for five miles when you see Matilija Canyon Road turnoff on your left; drive to the end and do proceed slowly since there are children playing along this road.
Map: Bryan Conant’s Matilija and Dick Smith Wilderness Trail Map Guide
— Dan McCaslin is the author of Stone Anchors in Antiquity, and has written extensively about the local backcountry. 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.
