Cold Spring Trail

Cold Spring Canyon’s near-wilderness nature is all the more surprising when considering its location--scarcely a mile as the orange-crowned warbler flies from the villas of the rich and famous, and just two miles from Montecito’s boutiques and bistros.

When the Santa Ynez Forest Reserve was established in 1899, rangers used the trail up the West Fork of Cold Spring Canyon to patrol the Santa Barbara backcountry. Forest rangers soon realized that this tricky trail, which climbed around a waterfall and crossed shale slopes, was difficult to maintain. In 1905, the Forest Service built a trail up the East Fork of Cold Spring Canyon. West Fork lost its status as a government maintained transportation artery, and the pathway even disappeared from some maps over the years.(Local hikers, however, never forgot the wonders of West Fork Trail and today, while little used, it offers a fine hike. )

“Our favorite route to the main ridge was by a way called the Cold Spring Trail,” wrote Stewart Edward in his 1906 classic, The Mountains. “We used to enjoy taking visitors up it, mainly because you come on the top suddenly, without warning. Then we collected remarks. Everybody, even the most stolid, said something.”