The remaining undamaged frontcountry trails still call out to those of us confined to concrete Santa Barbara and its urban absurdities.
Lately, I’ve recommended hikes into old standby Rattlesnake Canyon as well as Jesusita and Tunnel trails, but they also are heavily impacted by transfer day-hikers from the lost Montecito frontcountry trailheads, e.g. Cold Springs, Romero, San Ysidro and Romero.
I won’t give in to any territorial imperative or to parochial pride and assert only that Santa Barbara residents should use these trails. No, it’s wonderful to see more hikers enjoying and exercising in our grand outdoors.
And lately, there have been many more children — fantastic! Bring them out to the frontier we still have and seek life’s meadows in which to frolic and play!
Yet we must discover some other trails and easy backpacking areas locally, too.
Readers know that I’ve praised nearby Blue Canyon (soon to be reopened by the U.S. Forest Service), Gaviota Peak and even the Carrizo Plain. (See 4.1.1.)
Closer to town and thus less of a drive, up along East Camino Cielo Road near White Peak (3,800 feet), I recommend the “Rocky Ridge” hike to the cockscomb of weathered boulders thrown together on our northern horizon.
Some have called these crazy crags a “rock garden,” and the stone slabs plus coulter pines do create a weird mazelike effect.
As you gaze north from Santa Barbara, Rocky Ridge is the long, stony ramp running to the “right” of our highest local mountain, La Cumbre Peak (3,900 feet), with its eye-visible white lookout building at the crest.
Rocky Ridge also is east (to the right) of nearer Arlington Peak and adjoining Cathedral Rock.
In the olden days of the 1990s, dayhiking extremists and I would hike another route up to the rock garden hidden behind Rocky Ridge. From Skofield Park through Rattlesnake Canyon, take the Tunnel Connector Trail west almost to Tunnel Trail, then break north straight up and begin clambering to the Rocky Ridge formation.
This is indeed a “scramble,” with plenty of upper-body work since there really isn’t any trail. Welcome to bushwhacking on the frontside!
The lightly marked trail goes only about 1.3 miles from where you leave the Tunnel Connector Trail to East Camino Cielo just past Rocky Ridge, but you ascend more than 1,100 feet, and the sketchy path quickly disappears altogether, so you have to guess and backtrack frequently.
Free hiking like this over mostly stony slopes also frees up the mind and creative energies. Picking a safe course requires utmost one-pointed attention, or you might stumble and maybe get cut up a bit, or lose your way entirely.
But it’s now late February, and our hiking team eschews a shuttle, so we drive up Gibraltar to East Camino Cielo Road and park immediately on the left after the signed junction. Here, White Mountain is almost as tall as La Cumbre Peak, and our plan is to take the trail west around the mountain, then drop into the renowned local playground.
My grad school friends and I “found” this place on our own scrambling around in the late 1970s; thus, we still use our own made-up term “Rocky Ridge” for the rock garden.
The photographs reveal the enchanted stone playground with the town of Santa Barbara far below, and my friends and I enjoyed hopping around, picking up on one or another of the myriad tiny animal trails encircling the rocks, scrambling from boulder to crag.
At my former school we constructed primitive zen rock gardens, but nature outdoes us all in Her crazed randomness and chaparral excesses.
The human mind seeks patterns, and out on these boulders we imagine Cyclopean walls, Chumash caves and emergency rock shelter sites. Henry James famously wrote, “Order is the dream of man, but chaos is the law of nature.”
The hardy coulter pines here flourish in harsh, dry, low mountains, and cling to the pink boulders in sinuous curls. There are far fewer conifers remaining compared to early scrambles in the rocky maze during the 1970s and 1980s; and it’s the same on nearby La Cumbre Peak. These are symptoms of the Anthropocene Age and inexorable climate change.
Another option to reach Rocky Ridge and the rock playground is to head straight over the top of White Mountain on the obvious trail. This trek is more difficult, and there’s not much on the summit except a trail sign stating “White Mountain.” You continue on and drop down into the charming playland described above.
I almost always recommend bringing children and friends on these ventures, and Rocky Ridge is fairly easy if you drive up Camino Cielo (I don’t do the “olden days” longer route from Skofield Park via Rattlesnake Canyon). You’ll encounter thorny chaparral, very poor trail and minor bushwhacking among the boulders.
You and your children/friends should have sturdy shoes or boots, long sleeves and long trousers, wide-brim hat, sunscreen and plenty of water. I also wear gloves, carry safety gear in a daypack and wield two aluminum hiking poles. Cell reception is unreliable.
The round-trip is only about 1.5 miles, but you can add hours of pleasurable scrambling time in the maze. Plan to hang out in the eyries and rock shelters of this sacred zone of our Mother Earth. (This is not a wise choice in the full heat of summer, or during inclement winter weather.)
4.1.1.
» I rely on Ray Ford’s legible Santa Barbara frontcountry map.
— 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.
