It had been awhile since I had visited some of the front-side canyons around Santa Barbara, so yesterday I went to check out Romero Canyon. I unwisely started mid-day, but fortunately the weather was relatively mild which kept temperatures in the tolerable range.
Parking is always a problem at Romero and my mid-day start didn't change that. I had to park a fair distance up the road and then back-track to the trailhead before I could start up.
There are two routes up Romero: the "fire road" and the hiking trail (which is used by mountain bikers so keep an eye out). The former, which starts off as a road but eventually turns into more of a path, is the more meandering and gentle way up. The latter is the steeper but more direct route. I went up the latter.
The lower section of the trail (before it crosses the fire road about 2.1 miles up) is pleasant and mostly shaded. It crosses Romero Creek several times which is still flowing. Speaking of the creek, the winter rains really did a job on the creek bed. In the lower sections of the canyon, the raging winter rains scoured the canyon clean cutting a deep gorge where the creek bed now is.
Once you cross the fire road, the trail climbs out of the shade and onto the exposed, hot, and dry south-facing slope. Yesterday, this part of the climb was warm but not terribly uncomfortable. Later in the summer, it would be oppressively hot. Optimally, late fall/early winter is the time for this and other hikes in the Santa Barbara front range.
About 1 mile beyond where the path crosses the fire road, you intersect with the Ocean View Trail. The Romero Canyon Trail continues another 0.5 miles to Camino Cielo, while the Ocean View Trail cuts west to the Romero Saddle. Because it looked a bit overgrown, and I had followed the Romero Canyon Trail to Camino Cielo before, I opted for the Ocean View Trail. After ascending to the high point, I could see the saddle but found no reason to go that far as it isn't terribly scenic or interesting. Plus, you get better views of the back-country by not going to the saddle. So I climbed to top of the high-point, found a downed tree to sit on, and had lunch as I dried out.
The descent was quick, but not necessarily easy, particularly in the lower canyon which is pretty dang rocky. On the way back down the 101, I stopped in Carpinteria for a late-day swim in the ocean. One of the better perks of hiking in this area.
Romero Canyon
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Uncle Rico
- Posts: 1386
- Joined: Thu Mar 20, 2008 7:48 pm
Yeah, there's not really anything that compelling about either Romero Saddle or the junction with East Camino Cielo. It's just an entry point for the back country. The Romero Canyon Trail continues on the north side of East Camino Cielo down into Blue Canyon.
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tallsquirrel
- Posts: 25
- Joined: Thu Nov 16, 2017 6:37 pm
Nice Humboldt Lily pic. A very rare flower in my experience.
