Santa Barbara has some of the best hiking anywhere, and lots of it!
Lots of hiking trails are listed here with maps, topos and directions to the trailhead. Print out what you need and take it with you.
Then, come back and talk about your adventure.
Today TrailHacker and I hiked up Rattlesnake trail. It was a hot day. Felt humid, too. I sweat like a pig.
When we got to the meadow, we decided to hike up the Connector to Tunnel Trail. The Connector trail sucks! It's full of star thistle and gone-to-seed phacelia which sticks to your pants. I stopped to pee and somehow managed to get my pants FULL of foxtails. I spent a lot of time stopping to pull my pants back down and remove foxtails.
When we got to Tunnel Trail, we decided to hike up to the waterfall. There was little shade on the burned up trail, so we sat on a big rock above the fall that we call the Throne. It's a perfect rock for relaxing in the shade. We sat there cooling off, watching a little canyon wren hop around the rocks and sing.
After cooling off, we continued up to touch the end of the trail. We reached East Camino Cielo. I suggested we walk down the road back to Rattlesnake trail and avoid the Connector. But TrailHacker didn't want to walk on the hot asphalt all that way. So we hiked back down.
We stopped once more at the Throne and again at the meadow. We stopped when we reached Rattlesnake creek and cooled off in the water. So refreshing!
We hiked down the trail that goes by the old circular horse trough. There was water in it.
It was a good hike, but the Connector really needs some work. Tunnel could use it too. The best thing to see was somebody posted a Haiku poem urging dog walkers not to leave their poop bags on the trail. Well done! I only saw one poop bag and it was gone on our way down.
Is now a book!
My trail journal from Santa Barbara to Canada on the Pacific Crest Trail
My trail journal on the Pacific Crest Trail