Arroyo Burro Trail to Santa Ynez River

This hike is a delight. You must hike through the environmental devastation of a shooting range to begin, but once you turn the corner, you no longer hear the gunshots or see the trash and instead find yourself in an enchanted fairytale forest.

You'll hike along a well-maintained trail on the shady side of the mountains through oak woodland and madrone forests. Depending on the time of year, the trail may be covered in alder, maple, bay and oak leaves and be rich in moss, banana slugs and a variety of fungus or may have a myriad of wildflowers.

The trail ends at a dirt road which you can follow past private White Oak Camp to the Santa Ynez River.

The hike is just under 7.5 miles round trip, which includes the dirt road to the river.

If you are not an experienced hiker, don't overestimate your abilities. You descend first and only climb to return to your car. If you're not in good condition, you may find the climb back to your car harder than you expected.

Arroyo Burro Trail to the Santa Ynez River Updates

Update trail conditions

Posted: February 13, 2011, 7:07 pm
by: Jade

This was a nice hike! Mostly shady, and nice and cool under the trees. The creek is running really nicely. Be prepared: going uphill on the return trip is nicer on the knees, but it does make the hike seem a lot longer!

I came prepared for mud with my serious hiking boots, but we didn't really encounter any - until we got very close to the river. Then it wasn't mud we found, it was a giant pool of water blocking the trail. There didn't seem to be any easy way around, and we were practically at the end of the hike, so we just turned back. The water looked clean enough, and maybe knee-deep, so you could wade across if you wanted to badly enough.

Posted: January 7, 2011, 6:25 pm
by: Cross Tie Walker

Thanks for adding this one, Diane. We did the AB up-and-over on 12/20/10; see http://www.santabarbarahikes.com/community/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=9&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15 for my account. Great route!

Posted: December 28, 2010, 6:59 pm
by: Diane

We saw lots of lady bug swarms on this trail today. Once the sun hit them, they would fall in clumps from their clusters on rocks and twigs. It was hard not to step on them since they were all over the trail. The creek was noisy with water and in some places we could peek through the brush and see small waterfalls below us.

There's a lot of mud toward the bottom. It's probably better to turn around when you get to the mud if you don't want to ruin your shoes.

Posted: December 28, 2010, 6:47 pm
by: Diane

Post your update here.