San Ysidro

Santa Barbara front country

Map link.

My sister and her husband wanted a hike while they were in town, so I needed to find something that wasn't too long or upward facing, but of course still wanted to get somewhere. I decided to go up San Ysidro again to see the little waterfall. It was quite crowded when we got there, but there were a few spaces left. Getting to the trailhead, we found a table was set up nearby to give runners in the successor to the 9-trail race some water. We saw a few runners going both directions as we headed up the trail.

The trail starts off at the end of that bit of East Mountain Road and progresses up between two properties to a private road, then follows a dirt path on the stream side along that for a bit before leaving the houses. There was a nice little flow down in the stream a short way below the level of the road. Then the pavement ends at a gate and the trail follows the dirt road for a bit. A signed trail leads to the right at the gate and another one crosses the stream to the left shortly after.

A swimming hole along the way with a sort of water slide into it, except for the extra rocks in front of it.

The road joined the utility road, following along to the left for a short way, then San Ysidro broke away from the road as a well used trail. The runners continued following the utility road, so we got a little less traffic as we went up the trail. There were still plenty of people going up the trail.

A few flowers could be found by the side of the trail, but not so many.

Lines of rocks in the green canyon side.

The trail takes a few little switchbacks as it climbs through the canyon. At the second set, there is a little waterfall that many clearly like to hang around. Then the trail crosses the stream and follows a smaller tributary up for just a few feet more. A trail off the next switchback walks right up to the bottom of the tall waterfall, but most of the water that was coming down the stream isn't coming down the waterfall. It was fairly dry, though at least not as dry as some of the spots along the short way up the tributary. The water went underground a couple times along the way.

Just a little waterfall, way down below a switchback.

A growing waterfall in two senses of the word. The green almost entirely hides the water flowing down.

The growing stone is covered in moss and leafy things as the water dribbles over it.

Up on the walls, desert plants make a home since the water isn't so plentiful.

Close up on the surface of the waterfall rock. It's really more of a cascade when the water is so low.

And so, seeing the waterfall, we headed back down. It was the destination and I just couldn't get anyone to head up to the top.

Some of the rocks along the way.

A little peek at the ocean and island while on the way back down. The narrow canyon didn't offer many.

We stopped by a little pool on the way down. I got to play with my new camera a little more and all my nuts and berries were nibbled down to nothing. I also seemed to be getting tested as to what all I had with me in case of need. I do have food, water, ibuprofen, and DEET. Even one of the rocks had a band-aid, so that's not so special.

This is a little swimming hole along the way. Someone's built up the rocks a little try try to make it a little larger, a rather common activity, it must work somewhat.

Reflected light plays upon the undersides of rocks.

Eek! A spider! A rather fat spider with stubby legs. There was also a thin spider with longer legs about. This one needs to do some work on its web.

A bit of the stream beside the trail.

We continued down the trail to the road. There was one last runner coming up the road, looking rather exhausted, then a fellow a fair distance behind picking up the flags marking the route. We got a ripe prickly pear off a cactus on the side of the road with a perfectly hurled missile to try later and finished the hike.

Rocks and trees and things.

Bright red prickly pears are ripe cactus fruit.

©2011 Valerie Norton
Posted 8 December 2011