Tequepis Trails

(te-KAY-piss)

This is a beautiful trail. You will get gorgeous views of Cachuma Lake while climbing, and great views of the coast when you reach the summit. Another bonus is that there are two geocaches at the top for you to look for.

This is a challenging hike, with 2000ft elevation gain in 3 miles, one way. Total mileage is approximately 6 miles.

Tequepis Trail Updates

Update trail conditions

Posted: February 22, 2012, 6:40 pm
by: Cross Tie Walker

Hiked the upper stretch of the Tequepis Trail with my 6-year-old on Sunday. Fantastic conditions, but some OHV riders had just been riding their bikes along the trail (where's a shotgun-toting Ranger when you really want one?), tearing things up.



Lots of the barriers along the ridge line have been pulled down ... I continue to lose respect for the OHV crowd. Sorry clowns, but when/if you lose your rights you'll just have your brethren to blame, and I won't feel a d*mned bit sorry for you.

The vegetation along West Camino Cielo's firebreak has recently been cleared; from Refugio Road all the way to Winchester Gun Club the chippers have been busy!



CTW

Posted: November 19, 2010, 11:16 am
by: shunsick

Here are some photos from the hike.
http://web.me.com/shunsick/Site_2/Tequepis_Trail.html

Posted: July 11, 2010, 8:08 am
by: sbdolphin62

Great trail, great hike! Nice and wide trail very clean. I would recommmend doing it in the early morning lots of trail in sun but there is shady spots too.And once at the top an awesome view both ways! Enjoy the trail I would do it again too!

Posted: June 1, 2009, 12:01 pm
by: water

Trail is open, We went yesterday, no kidding about the uphill hike, but definitely worth every inch. We started late in the afternoon, go a very clear view throughout, but would recommend an earlier start.

Posted: May 26, 2009, 12:45 pm
by: train

does anyone have any idea if this trail is open right now? how can I get there from Santa Ynez. new to the area, and am looking for good back country hiking trails.
thanks,

Train

Posted: July 5, 2008, 8:19 pm
by: eric_h

We were cut short today on this hike. The winds shifted a bit and caused Gap Fire smoke to head up and over the ridge and we turned back at about 1 mile from the top, bummed to not get the view from the top, although views of Cachuma were great.

It's worth noting that not far from the camp, the road bends uphill to the right and goes through a gate, but the trail actually goes left. My wife and I got lost at this point on our first trip up Tequepis last year.

Also, not to scare anyone, but we saw a mama black bear and her little cub today. They were definitely more scared of us than we were of them, but worth noting for sure.

Posted: April 13, 2008, 8:08 pm
by: rar

I found the length, from the parking lot at St V camp, to the moment you can see Goleta from the top of the ridge to actually be 4.1 miles as measured by my GPS. Which would make the total length 8.2 instead of the 6 miles listed. Quite a difficult hike at my fitness level!

Here is a picture of the trail from Google Earth: Tequepis Trail

Posted: October 8, 2007, 12:19 am
by: elisabeth

Trail in great shape (perhaps the best condition of any I've seen in SB); also about two hours up, 1.5 down -- didn't leave enough light to make it out to the car, and if it weren't for a small flashlight, we would have been stranded (saw only one other person as he was hiking out)... it gets very, very dark back there. All in all, a very nice hike, an excellent trail, lovely weather (and plenty of shade), and one lesson learned.

Posted: December 3, 2006, 10:43 pm
by: dsandrs

My first hike in SB. 2:06 on the way up. Trails were clear, weather beautiful, views unbelievable.

1:30 on the way down.

Recommend this trail.

Posted: November 12, 2006, 11:12 pm
by: Anonymous

Hiked this on Nov. 12. There was a pile of wood blocking the trail with an arrow pointing off to the left about .75 miles from the boy scout camp. That is definitely the WRONG WAY. We encountered many trucks and decided to turn around when we were heading very north (trail should go south) and heard weird techno music being blasted from a grove of trees up ahead. All the private property signs kind of gave us a clue too.

So, early on when you reach a junction where there are some rusted metal tanks to your left and some piles of wood and scrap metal on your right, take the right-veering path. Even if the pile of wood with the left-pointing arrow is still there, just step over it. You know you're on the correct trail if it's too small for a car to drive on.