Old Romero Road is scheduled to fully reopen this September.
A staple of the front-country and previously one of the most bike-friendly trails in Montecito, Old Romero Road will reopen for bikers, hikers, and those chasing scenic overlooks of the coastline.
The closure on the road is scheduled to end on Sept. 18th, which means that it either has to be ready for opening or face a renewed closure. So the mission is on to get it ready for opening.
“For Montecito folks that is their crown jewel of hiking,” said Andrew Madsen, public affairs officer for the Los Padres Forest Service.
The road’s status has been rocky over the past few years—the 2018 Montecito mudslides swept it away, and coincidentally exactly five years later, rain once again washed the road down the mountain. Since then, Old Romero Road has not been fully opened or repaired back to its original state.
Unfortunately for bikers, landslide damage near East Camino Cielo means that the trail won’t be as bike friendly as it previously was.
Rachel Clancy, a recreation officer with the Forest Service, said the upper part of the road that connects to East Camino Cielo will be reclassified from a “highly developed trail” to a “minimally developed trail.”
On mile five of the trail, within that reclassified zone, there is a major landslide that Clancy said won’t be treated in the first phase.
“That slide will impact bike usage,” Clancy said. She emphasized that the first phase is focused on mitigating safety hazards. “Users should expect changes since when they last used the trail.”
While the Forest Service is overseeing the overall project, the initial work to open the trail in September has been coordinated by the Montecito Trails Foundation. It hired a frequent partner, the Los Padres Forest Association, to carry out the trail restoration.
However—despite offering a fully funded plan—the Trails Foundation was only given permission to conduct basic maintenance in preparation for the reopening in September.
“For us that was a huge disappointment,” said Ashlee Mayfield, executive director at the Montecito Trails Foundation in regards to not being able to treat the landslide.
Who’s project is it?
The Montecito Trails Foundation has coordinated the restoration through a back and forth process with the Forest Service over the past three years.
The Foundation initially offered a fully funded plan for restoration to the Service in 2023. The Forest Service rejected the initial offer and several subsequent ones, opting to pursue their own technical reviews to determine the approach for restoration.
“Finally on the 3rd plan we submitted, we put an end date, and said if you don’t accept our plan we are going to rescind the offer and the money,” said Ashlee Mayfield, executive director of the Montecito Trails Foundation.
The Forest Service did not meet that date, set in spring of 2026. However, later this year they opted to turn the project into two phases—allowing the Foundation to carry out the first.
If the road opens as scheduled in September, it will be the first time the full loop has been open since 2019, marking it as a major milestone in trail restoration following the devastating Thomas Fire in 2017.
Two phases
The initial phase of the project is projected to cost over $50,000. However, the overall cost could vary depending on weather conditions. Maintenance will continue through the winter ahead of the Forest Service’s planned phase two. The money for the their section of the project is coming from the Thomas Fire restoration fund.
Bryan Conant, executive director of the Los Padres Forest Association, said that the initial restoration work will focus on installing drainage to prevent erosion along with repairs along the narrow sections of the trail.
“The problem with Old Romero is that most of the trail damage is caused by falling rock or slide material covering the trail,” Conant said. “There’s not a lot of cost effective measures we can do to prevent that sort of damage.”
The risk of storm damage will continue as a lingering threat to the status of the trail. Installing measures that could entirely mitigate future damage to the trail isn’t possible, Mayfield said.
Phase two is targeted for within the next fiscal year and will be conducted by contractors of the Forest Service. The second phase will involve the reconstruction and redevelopment of damaged sections.
Despite the heat
The timing of the work is also not ideal, Mayfield said. The middle of summer is a rough time to work on trails due to hot, dusty and dry conditions.
“It’s such a difficult time of the year,” Mayfield said. “There is nothing about doing trail work in the middle of the year that’s good.”
Despite the heat, the Foundation and the Los Padres Forest Association are excited to get the trail back open. Crews from the Association are working up in the hills so that they can be ready for the September opening.
Mayfield hopes to bring some volunteers up to help with the project, but added that community involvement will be dependent on the weather.
“However all the phases play out, I really hope to see Romero come back to the trail we all knew it was before 2023,” Mayfield said.
