On Santa Barbara's Creative Community

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.”

Rattlesnake Canyon Trail

Rattlesnake Canyon Trail is serpentine, but otherwise far more inviting than its name suggests.

The joys of the canyon were first promoted by none other than the Santa Barbara Chamber of Commerce. Many early 20th century visitors to Santa Barbara resorts enjoyed hiking and riding in the local mountains. Eager to keep the customers satisfied, in 1902 the chamber purchased easements from canyon homesteaders to develop a recreation trail.

"Chamber of Commerce Trail," as the chamber called it, was an immediate success with both tourists and locals. However, to the chamber's consternation, both the trail and the canyon itself continued to be called Rattlesnake. Chamber of Commerce Canyon sounded a bit self-serving, so the chamber tried to compromise with an earlier name, Las Canoas Canyon, and adopted a 1902 resolution to that effect. "The name of Rattlesnake Canyon is unpleasantly suggestive of a reptile," it argued, "which is found no more plentifully there than elsewhere along the mountain range and may deter some nervous persons from visiting that most delightful locality."

Even on the beach, my twelve year-old All Star can’t stop playing baseball. Danielgrips a driftwood “bat,” tosses rocks in the air, and hits them into the waves.
 
But something disturbs his hitting. He steps out of his imaginary batters box, peers at the bottom of his feet, and frowns. “Lots of tar today, Dad.”