Big Caliente and Little Caliente Hot Springs

[carl swindle]

I all!

I introduced myself in the part of this forum that covers the San Gabriel Mountains, but I recently went on a nice excursion to Big and Little Caliente Hot Springs that I thought I'd share with y'all.

Last Saturday I was in the Santa Barbara area and I decided to try out Big Caliente hot springs, which I hadn't been to in several years. I figured I'd start at Romero Saddle and jog down to Big Caliente along the Fire Road and try taking Blue Canyon + Romero trail back to the top after soaking. The jog down was smooth until just a little after the Santa Ynez river crossing on the Fire Road (Romero Camuesa Road becomes Camuesa Road), where parts of the road were washed out by tributaries flowing into the Santa Ynez River. This was the case for the road branching off toward Big Caliente Hot Springs too compared to the conditions last time I was in the area maybe ~3-4 years ago. This time however, the large pool was open and full from some near by campers, who I accidentally woke up early in the morning due to their dog and me not seeing them at the site.

After just a few minutes in the large pool, I then went to the smaller pool along the creek and stayed there so I could give the campers some space and continuously jump out and fill my water in the nearby stream.

After about 45 minutes, I left and went to look for the Blue Canyon Trail connector to Cottam Camp. However, I wasn't able to find the sign, which I remember seeing last time I was in the area. I may have missed it, but looking at google maps, it seemed to be just west of P-Bar Flats campground, in a spot that looks like it had experienced considerable erosion (more than half the fire road was missing in some sections).

Further up (but before Mono Campground), sections of Camuesa Road were considerably washed out, while others were fine (not even really overgrown). When I got to Mono, I decided to make my way towards Little Caliente hot springs. I always forget how nice this one is even though it's a fraction of the size of Big Caliente.

I think I only stayed 10-15 minute (since there was no adjacent stream I could use to get cool water) before heading back along the trail next to the Mono Jungle and across the Santa Ynez River.

As I took Forbush trail up to Cold Spring Saddle, I saw more water flowing over the tufas than I has last time I went (December 2022 I think - The photo below is from a few days ago - February 2024).

I completed the route by jogging back from Cold Springs Saddle to Romero Saddle. I really love this area. It was interesting seeing how much everything has changes in the past few years in some of the more isolate sections of the route.

[Sean]

Thanks for the report. Caliente Hot Springs is twice as hot as a regular hot springs.

[dima]

Thanks for the report! I've now been on much of that, and it's good to see that it's all still there, and passable and all that. Where's the waterfall in your photo? Was this a day trip for you? Mileage? Gain?

[carl swindle]

Thanks for the report! I've now been on much of that, and it's good to see that it's all still there, and passable and all that. Where's the waterfall in your photo? Was this a day trip for you? Mileage? Gain?

The waterfall is near the bottom of Forbush trails which I took when returning toward Camino Cielo from Little Caliente. I did this as a day trip but I wasn't planning on it and wouldn't suggest it unless you have some food and a watering filter. According to Google Maps the route is over 28.8 miles not including the rerouting of the trail to avoid most the Mono Jungle (not in Google Maps yet - likely doesn't add much). I was planning on just going to Big Caliente Hot Springs from the Fire Road starting at Romero Saddle and coming back the Blue Canyon + Romero route, which would have been ~20 miles total, but I either completely missed the sign for Blue Canyon Trail along Camuesa or the part of the road where there sign was got washed out. It's definitely passable tough.

[carl swindle]

Thanks for the report. Caliente Hot Springs is twice as hot as a regular hot springs.

The small pool is defiantly hot. I was refilling my bottle from the creek every 10-15 minutes or so. The larger pool is nice, and a little more comfortable, but I wanted to give the campers some space. The first time I went to that large pool a few years ago, I was unable to open the faucet (I'm not sure if it was locked somehow of sealed by precipitate minerals), so I was stuck with the really warm pool, which is still nice.

[Elwood]

Thanks for the report. Caliente Hot Springs is twice as hot as a regular hot springs.

That's very funny Sean.

[dima]

The waterfall is near the bottom of Forbush trails which I took when returning toward Camino Cielo from Little Caliente

Excellent. Thanks

not including the rerouting of the trail to avoid most the Mono Jungle (not in Google Maps yet - likely doesn't add much)

The routes should all be in openstreetmap: https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=15/34.5132/-119.6250. Is anything missing or wrong?

[carl swindle]

The waterfall is near the bottom of Forbush trails which I took when returning toward Camino Cielo from Little Caliente

Excellent. Thanks

not including the rerouting of the trail to avoid most the Mono Jungle (not in Google Maps yet - likely doesn't add much)

The routes should all be in openstreetmap: https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=15/34.5132/-119.6250. Is anything missing or wrong?

This looks better than google. The trail I was talking about is apparently called the Mono Jungle Bypass Trail, which is approximated in this map (there are parts where it seems that someone just drew a straight line when that's not what the trail does). There are way more switchbacks and meanders along this trail than you can see on the map. I'm fairly certain it's slightly more distance than taking Cold Springs through Mono Jungle, but mono jungle is full of quicksand right now given the storms (I've made that mistake before).

It also looks like they call the fire road that that I took down to the Santa Ynez river is labeled as "East Camino Cielo" which I thought ended at Romero Saddle (where I started) and became Romero Camuesa, but it looks like that happens at the Santa Ynez River crossing instead in OSM.

[dima]

OSM is the dataset used by everyone who isn't google or apple. It is publically sourced, and doesn't suck everywhere you can't sell advertising. I added some of these routes, but didn't have complete info, so the mapped route is just a straight line in places (as you say). This is noted in the dataset: https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/1043288746. If you want to, you can fix it! And everyone will then get and use those changes (except google and apple because they're lame and smell bad). Alternately, if you share your gps track of the mono jungle bypass trail, I can make the fixes.

[carl swindle]

OSM is the dataset used by everyone who isn't google or apple. It is publically sourced, and doesn't suck everywhere you can't sell advertising. I added some of these routes, but didn't have complete info, so the mapped route is just a straight line in places (as you say). This is noted in the dataset: https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/1043288746. If you want to, you can fix it! And everyone will then get and use those changes (except google and apple because they're lame and smell bad). Alternately, if you share your gps track of the mono jungle bypass trail, I can make the fixes.

I don't track GPS locations of most of my routes. I used to on one of those running apps (strava or map my run), but it wound up eating away at my phone battery during longer excursions. I could do it over that section of trial next time I'm out there, but it may be a little while until before I go back.