Ever since we dropped off our son Navin at UC Santa Barbara almost 4 years ago, I’ve been thinking of exploring the Santa Ynez Mountains that prominently serves as a majestic backdrop to the city. Part of the Los Padres National Forest, Santa Ynez is one of the few mountain ranges in the United States that runs east-west. My wife & I recently drove down for the Easter weekend and I had the opportunity hike and run different sections of the Santa Ynez. Here’s my Strava activity:

Santa Ynez: The San Ysidro Trail

We stayed near the downtown area and I was looking around on the map until I saw the San Ysidro trailhead in Montecito, not too far from us. Mapping out the route, the 4ish mile to the crest (El Camino Cielo) had a 3,200 foot elevation gain, with most of the elevation coming in the last two miles! Navin and two of his friends, Stephen & Amit, joined me on this run/hike.

There was heat danger warnings at the trailhead, which I guess is fair since it gets hot, dry and exposed amidst the chaparral. Geologically, the mountains are sedimentary with shale and sandstone being the prominent rock types. The ruggedness of these mountains reminded me very much of the Pine Ridge Trail in the Ventana Wilderness.

We pulled up to the trailhead around 7:30am and ran up the trail following the San Ysidro creek. We were largely in the morning shade, nice and cool, and were greeted with wildflowers in full April bloom – bush poppies, bluewitch nighshade, prickly phlox, paintbrushes, wood sorrel, meadow lotus! And not a soul on this trail until we got to the top! 

A couple of miles in, we saw a waterfall and the climbing began in earnest from here – just up and up, ticking 1,000ft/mile! The views were gorgeous and we were lucky to have a clear, sunny-but-not-warm day and had fantastic views of the Channel Islands in the distance.

We lingered around at the summit, soaking up the views and decided to descend down on Cold Springs Trail by the graffiti-covered water tower. The Sierra Madre mountain range looked incredible and I’m pretty sure there’s backcountry backpacking – the solitude and the dark sky out there’s gotta be epic!

Took a short detour on the way down to summit the bald Montecito Peak (more 360 views!). The descent was slow at times as the trail was quite rocky and technical. In hindsight, going up this way would’ve been a better choice, since San Ysidro would’ve made for a much better downhill run.

We eventually found the connector trail that took us through a patch of hot springs (sulphur smell and quite crowded!), crossed the San Ysidro creek and made it back to the car. 11 miles, 3,600ft elevation gain, an amazing day in the Santa Ynez mountains! Of course, we drove to the beach after we finished and took a cold plunge in the ocean! 🥶

The next couple of days, we hiked with our dog out to Inspiration Point and subsequently I tried to run up to the top of Arlington Peak (on the way to Cathedral Peak & La Cumbre Peak), but only to find that it was a class-2/3 rock scramble through dense manzanita! With no water nor gels and a phone in my hand, decided to abort after getting close to the half way mark. Adding this to the runsploring list during our next visit in June for Navin’s graduation!

As I’m learning now, there are a gazillion trails from Gaviota to Carpintería all of which lead up to El Camino Cielo! Not to mention the rugged backcountry – someday!