It’s a warm early spring morning, the rain has passed and I’m told the temperature will be in the upper 70s in a few days. On days like this there is no finer place to spend an afternoon than along one of Santa Barbara’s many creekside trails.
My favorite trail has always been up Cold Springs Canyon mainly because you’re immersed in the canyon vegetation right from the road’s edge. The Montecito Debris Flow in January, 2018 altered the canyon in ways—most notably in the loss of hundreds of the alder trees that have lined the creek banks seemingly forever.
There was one spot along the trail I always stopped. It was situated at a fork in the creek where a large, twin-trunked alder stood high above the others. On it were the carvings of what I’m sure was the result a couple of teenagers taking a moment or two to leave their mark. There are a series of cuts in the back that appear to be quite a few years old. Thankfully the tree didn’t seem to mind and I’m sure hundreds of others have stopped by, checked the carvings and continued on after a laugh or two.
The first one exclaims, “J. P. laid Martee here.” The second retorts, “B___ S____!” The third, probably the most accurate of all, simply says, “He’s only wishing.“
Like the others I can’t help but laugh as well.
I am still amazed after all these years that there are so many trails in the front country to choose from and incredibly all of them within a half hour or so of my doorstep. The list seems endless: San Antonio, San Roque; Mission, Rattlesnake, Hot Springs, San Ysidro, Romero canyons. It’s one of the things that makes Santa Barbara one of the best hiking destinations in Southern California.
Instinctively, though, I head to Cold Spring Canyon and the pools that cascade over the rugged sandstone between the first and second creek crossings. I find the perfect spot to lay back on the sandstone. The rock is hot from the sun, perfect to lie back on and relax, and warming me up before my first plunge in the chilling apple-green water.
Then I’m back out on the rock. It feels good to lie back and absorb the sun’s energy. The weariness of the day begins to drain away, and the frantic pace which always seems to be the rule back in the city eases away.
Living the good life
It is a lazy, unpretentious way to enjoy the mountain wall and its hidden treasures. Resting on the coarse sandstone, so many years in the making, it is possible to assimilate the sense of deep time silently offered to you. If you haven’t been out for a hike in a bit or perhaps never yet, there’s not a better time to take one. The water is flowing, the hillsides are green and the flowers are just coming out.
Meanwhile, I’m in heaven. The light filters through the oak leaves in canyon country. Beneath, in their shade are smaller plants with bulbous, bright-red flower pods known as hummingbird sage, the intense nuclear yellows of the bush poppy, the canyon sunflowers and the delicate pinks of the native roses.
What these are shouting out is that “it’s time to dust off your hiking boots, get on the trail, inhale the smells and soak in the sounds”—and explore a trail or two—especially given daylight saving time begins this weekend.
Canyon magic
Unlike much of the mountain wall, life in the Santa Ynez and San Rafael mountains begins in the canyons—the corridors most often visited by Santa Barbarans—thin creases of abundance, a land where wealth is measured in terms not of hard currency but in the availability of what night be called liquid gold.
Water is the life force here. I have spent many an afternoon hiking in the canyons of the front and back country and what draws me back is the cascading sound of the water as gravity pulls it down to the sea. “If there be magic on this planet, it is contained in water,” scientist Loren Eisley wrote. “Water ….its substance reaches everywhere; it touches the past and prepares the future.”
The canyons are places that seem to allow an easier life for those who live here. The vegetation literally has its feet in the water, and as a result, the leaves are larger and greener than in other plant communities, for these plants can afford to transpire more freely than their chaparral neighbors, which live but a hundred or more feet above.
This is known in botanical terms as the riparian zone, that lower part of the canyon that begins at the water’s edge and ends at the tips of the alder and sycamore.
But it is much more than that. It provides a natural buffer to filter out sediment, serve as natural corridors for wildlife travel, provides hillside stabilization, cools water temperatures that support aquatic life and as it slows down the water flow helps replenish the ground water table.
The plant communities
While the canyon community may seem somewhat uniform in nature, it is actually a web of interconnecting layers that each serve their own purpose.
At the top is the canopy, composed of the long branches of bay, willow, sycamore, and alder, and in the upper, cooler parts of the canyons, an occasional bigleaf maple. This overstory provides the shade, coolness, and humidity necessary to the lower layers.
Next are the shrubs, including coffeeberry, elderberry, currant, the ubiquitous poison oak, and the fuchsia-flowered gooseberry, which has brilliant red teardrop-shaped flowers with white inner petals. Also in this middle layer are blackberry, wild rose, and the sunshine brightness of the canyon sunflower.
Beneath is the herbacious layer, including a number of plants which can be classified as fire followers, plants that prosper in the years immediately after fire has swept through an area. Among the herbacious plants are miner’s lettuce, hummingbird sage, cream cups, buttercup, lupine, brodiaea, shooting stars, blue-eyed grass, nightshade, watercress, and mint. Here the abundance is nowhere more evident than in the numbers of small creatures which inhabit the canyons.
To think of wildlife in the mountains one usually thinks of the big creatures: the bear, the lion, the bobcat, or the coyote. But these are creatures more of open country, the grasslands, the wider canyon bottoms, the higher country where the brush is sparser. In the deeper canyons, and especially in the chaparral, the thickets and the interlacing of ceanothus, manzanita, toyon, and scrub oak serve to keep the big life out.
By comparison the canyons are for the most part a world of much smaller dimensions and the little creatures. It is also the perfect place to share to introduce your kids to the lush beauty that begins at the start of most of our front country trails. They’ll love it.
No matter what the age, whether on the beach, an open space area like Lake Los Carneros or one of the more gentle trails such as the lower part of the Jesusita Trail beginning at Stevens Park or a picnic at Tucker’s Grove and a walk up San Antonio Creek, the perfect ingredients for a great afternoon are here: water, warmth and greenery.
Or for other suggestions you might consider checking out this great trail resource. It is known as AllTrails and at the free level will provide you with access to nearby trails including descriptions, maps and more. You can find it online or by downloading the AllTrails app.
For those who would like to download a hi-res version of the Santa Barbara front country trails I created a few years ago, “right click” on the map and save this to your computer.
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Please note: If you choose to download the map or other photos, please be aware it may download in a new format called “webp.” Once downloaded you can open it and save it to a PNG or JPEG format depending on your preference.
Future articles by me will often include maps or other resources you may want to download and I encourage you to do so.
