Hike in Santa Barbara

The intrepid hikers.


Long time readers of this blog will realize I have done this hike before. It is the Santa Cruz trail in Santa Barbara. I have actually done it twice before, but only blogged about it once.

http://3dogdays.blogspot.com/2009/04/santa-cruz-trail.html

I took the day off and Dad was able to come. On the way there I was too busy talking and missed our turn off. We used Dad's GPS to find our way back to the correct road.

When we arrived in the forrest, the gate to the campground was closed! So instead of driving accross the river, and to the trailhead, we waded the river then walked the mile and a half to the trail head. The water was cold. It came up to my knees. We took our shoes off so they were not wet and soggy the rest of the hike. Once we got to the trail head we had lunch then pressed on.



I'm not sure why the pictures are so small. Try not to get eyestrain.

As you may remember from the last time I wrote about this hike, it starts out following a creek. There are lots of trees and it is very shaded.


Following the creek.

Then it begins to climb the hill. That section is the typical chaparral of Southern California. The next part is not typical at all. It is a mountain meadow with lots of pretty flowers.







The dogs are hot.


Pie keeps a whether eye out. (Is that the correct spelling in this usage?)

Perhaps Dad will post the pictures larger on his blog.

After the meadow we hiked on further up the hill and crossed a place where a rock slide slide occurred in the past. We were careful to not slip. Shortly after that we had to turn around due to lack of time.

We saw a horny toad and a skink type thing.

It is a great hike and was made even better by sharing it with my dad.