West Fork and Tangerine Falls

IMPORTANT: The trail as you may remember it, or have seen in books or on maps (including the map on this site) has been re-routed recently (2006) due to serious washouts after the 2005-6 winter rains.

The hike begins at the main Cold Spring Trail, in shade, by a creek that almost always has plenty of water. After a gentle uphill for 3/4 of a mile you reach a bench by the creek where you can sit and clear your mind with the gentle sounds of small waterfalls. This bench is at the junction to the West Fork of Cold Spring Trail. Cross the creek at the bench and continue up the hill for about 3 more miles, passing a historical, landmark water tunnel along the way to the summit at Gibraltar Rd.

For a variation, there is a small junction you come to well before the summit at Gibraltar Rd. Follow this primitive trail along the creek to a waterfall known as Tangerine Falls. It's quite an adventurous rock-hopping kind of a trail, and at some places, not a trail for the faint of heart.

Also, not far along after you turn off toward Tangerine falls there is another turnoff to the left. You can find this one by looking leftwards as you follow the water pipe. When you see a trail, that's the one. This trail will take you steeply to a nice rock outcrop at the top of the falls. You can't see the falls from this outcrop, but you can enjoy the lofty perch just as well. Continuing along this trail, a little exploration on your part and you might discover something interesting at the end of this trail a structure some of us call the homestead. Or you may find yourself sweating up a steep hill toward the top of the mountains, if that part of the trail still exists.

The total mileage for the basic West Fork to Gibraltar Rd. trail is 3.5 miles round trip. For Tangerine Falls it is closer to 3 miles round trip.

West Fork of Cold Springs Trail and Tangerine Falls Updates

Update trail conditions

Posted: March 12, 2007, 8:46 pm
by: Tim Halberg

huh... saw what I assumed were dog tracks as I was hiking up to the top of Tangerine falls via the trail (not the class 3 rock sramble)

now I wonder if those were Cougar tracks... I only saw them going downhill... I'll have to take a closer look on tomorrow's hike.

Posted: January 28, 2007, 1:24 pm
by: Jeff

Fresh lion tracks and scat this morning above the falls. Tracks went over the ridge to the west fork canyon (toward Gibralter). Beautiful out there this morning.

Posted: January 22, 2007, 6:12 pm
by: blanchet

Saturday January 20 ~ 5PM, spotted a large moutain lion in along the trail approximately 0.5 mile downhill from tangerine falls. The animal retreated downslope to the creek after we came upon it and continued downstream. We lost sight of it relatively quickly. Nice to see these animals are still out and about.

Posted: August 3, 2006, 2:49 pm
by: geostrykyr

Hello all,

There has been a disturbing amout of cars broken into at the trailheads in Montecito lately. Our car was broken into last weekend at the Cold Springs Trailhead; the window smashed and my wife's purse stolen. It seems to be quite common lately and not much has done about it. Some days every single car in the lot is hit.
One approach that I have heard of is to remove everything of value from your car at the trailhead and then leave your windows down. The broken window was the biggest expense from our experience.

I hope this doens't discourage you from hiking - I hope you are able to protect yourself from these amatuer criminals.

Posted: July 23, 2006, 12:53 pm
by: mrhooks

From the description:

Quote:

you may notice another trail that veers off to the left just where you have to step over the pipe (for the umpteenth time). That trail will take you above the falls and further into a shaded canyon.

The "step over the pipe" part is the giveaway, but somehow I forgot about it, and ended up on the trail to the homestead (I think), which I don't think my friends and I even reached (the further up the trail we went, as the trail got steeper and more sun-exposed, more and more of my friends decided to turn around; in the end three of us made it a little past a butterfly sanctuary, decided we were on the wrong trail, and turned around).

I, my nine friends, and five other hikers we met on the trail all missed the "step over the pipe" part that leads to Tangerine Falls. At that junction, the "trail that veers off to the left", in my opinion, looks more like the continuation of the trail you are already on, and the way to Tangerine Falls looks more like a separate trail that veers off to the right. However, we actually didn't even notice that trail until we were on our way back. Assuming I'm thinking of the right place (near where there is a separation in the water pipe). The fact that the water pipe curves to the left (in the direction of the trail to the homestead and away from the trail to Tangerine Falls) before disappearing underground, further obfuscates the way to the falls, if you don't know or remember to step over the pipe.

I guess all of the class 3 rock scrambling is on the trail that I missed, because that's the main reason I chose this trail, and was rather disappointed I didn't encounter much. However, instead of "crossing the creek diagonally downhill, then back uphill and sharply to the left to the other side", my friends and I just crossed the creek and grabbed onto roots and branches and climbed our way up, which was too brief but much more fun.

 

Posted: March 5, 2006, 7:09 pm
by: Anonymous

Hiked to Tangerine Falls with my family today. The trail has eroded a little due to recent rains but overall the trail is still fine. And even though it hasn't rained that much lately, there is plenty of water at the falls, so now is a great time to make this hike.

This is always a fun hike and the falls are quite impressive right now.

 

Posted: October 29, 2005, 3:14 pm
by: Paolo

Went up today to check on my Agua Fria geocachehttp://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=907b9df3-c8b9-48cb-ac5a-a9e08d93c93c. The cache is gone, and the the slides have made the trail a more interesting but also taken out the gated door to the water tunnel which is now -- gasp!-- accessible (not that I would ever advise anyone to enter there!!!) to the fearless speleologist. A faint trail is visible past the water tunnel exit, and the strembed can be easily climbed to what I think is a previously inaccessible area. The stream climbs along a sandstone wall so flat that looks man-made. Very nice area for someone who does not mind some bushwacking and exploring. Leo went on for a while following some track, and we stopped here: http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=34.468634&lon=-119.66314 . Lots of water coming through the tunnel, although it disappears somewhere downstream. Nice place to visit!

 

Posted: August 29, 2005, 12:10 pm
by: Anonymous

My son, a friend and I hiked up to Tangerine Falls this past weekend and were pleasantly surprised to see that there was still water to be found. Any idea when this might dry up?

 

Posted: July 28, 2005, 2:08 pm
by: Anonymous

The sign is about 25-30 feet before the bench on the left hand side, I saw the bench before I noticed the sign as it is rusty and kind of blends in to the surroundings if you're not looking too closely. Followed the trail all the way to tangerine falls - great hike, but saw a couple smallish snakes (1.5-3ft) swimming around completely submerged in the pool at the base of the falls. No idea what kind they were.

 

Posted: July 26, 2005, 12:12 pm
by: Anonymous

We just did the west fork trail yesterday (or so we thought). We got to the bench at the creek crossing and saw no sign. We had only looked at a small trail map and assumed we should continue up the right side of the creek. We went on for hours and weren't sure if we were going the right way. The sign seems to be missing at the bench so don't make the same mistake we did.

---

 

Posted: June 29, 2005, 6:41 pm
by: Anonymous

Just did the Tangerine falls trail today, and the trail seems to have been repaired from the rains a few months ago. You no longer have some nasty detours that were caused by mudslides. There was perfect weather today, and the falls are flowing well. Great hike!

 

Posted: April 16, 2005, 11:33 pm
by: Anonymous

As I was walking back down the trail from Tangerine Falls there was a group of people standing around a rattlesnake. It was around 18" in length with 6-7 rattles. Not a big snake, but definitely dangerous and capable of inflicting a nasty bite. I was surprised to see it so close to the trail. It appeared to be preparing to cross the trail when the group of hikers and their dog were heading up the trail, and it also appeared ready to strike (head and neck angled back). I snapped a couple of photos and would post them here but I don't think this website has the capability. Just be careful out there folks and keep an eye on the trail.

 

Posted: March 23, 2005, 7:14 pm
by: Diane

Post your update here.