Romero Canyon Trail

Romero Canyon is a popular destination for hikers and mountain bikers. The trail is shady and along a creek bed for the first half. There is a strong scent of bay laurel in the air. The creek almost always has plenty of water, making the first half of the hike a tranquil forest hike. Then about 2 miles up, there is a junction with a fire road. Mountain bikers often use this road because it offers a challenge without being a complete death trap. Follow the trail instead of the road for a challenging climb up and over the Santa Ynez range to East Camino Cielo Rd, which is a dirt road where the trail meets. Follow East Camino Cielo leftward to the water tower and follow the old fire road back down to the junction. Then choose to follow the shady trail or the interesting, shaley road back to the trailhead.

There are wonderful views of Montecito and the ocean from the summit of this trail, and sweeping vistas of the wild back country when you reach East Camino Cielo Rd. Keep your eyes open where the trail meets East Camino Cielo for a rusty sign announcing Romero Trail continuing down the hill into Blue Canyon, a nice destination for a backpack trip.

Romero Canyon Trail Updates

Update trail conditions

Posted: August 26, 2009, 6:20 pm
by: mrhooks

The difference in difficulty between this hike and a 3.5 like 3 Pools is huge! There's no rock climbing, but purely in terms of leg and cardio fatigue, this hike is much more difficult, since it's mostly a very steady uphill climb. I managed to complete the hike to the water tower and back down the same way, but I don't think I'll do it in the mid-afternoon during summer again, unless I manage to get my fitness level up. My more athletic friends (martial arts instructors) didn't have as much trouble with it, but another friend and I really suffered on some of those steeply inclined switchbacks.

But it is a very beautiful hike. The trail is in excellent condition, the views are spectacular, and there's still a tiny bit of water in the creek. Flies buzzed at my ears and bit my legs the entire way up and down, much moreso than at any other SB trail I've done, so bring insect repellant. Also, there were hundreds of ladybugs at the first creek crossing. Pretty cool, unless that sort of thing creeps you out.

Posted: July 24, 2009, 8:49 am
by: carp_nb

Been hiking this trail a lot lately. The loop trail is in good shape (up the canyon, down the old Romero Rd). There's still a little bit of water running in the creek too.

MTF recently completed a new bench and hitching post on top of one of the peaks off the catwalk to the west of Romero Canyon. It's a short but steep hike up the catwalk and is worth the views in the cooler morning/evening hours. The bench is beautiful!

Posted: September 10, 2007, 8:00 am
by: amount

Great hike! There was still plenty of water, despite the lack of rain. We took the alternate route down from the top (from the water tower all the way down Romero Canyon Rd.) which turned out to be a lot longer than we expected. The directions are a little vague about this route. Our hike ended up being 10.2 miles instead of 6! In case you're curious, here's the route length, courtesy of Google maps:

Romero Canyon Rd. (E. Camino Cielo to Bella Vista Dr.)

Posted: November 21, 2005, 11:39 am
by: Anonymous

My Girlfriend and I hiked this trail over the weekend. We are from Los Angeles and left town around 11am. I suggest to anyone leaving Los Angeles to leave earlier as we ran into one hell of traffic jam.
We finally arrived at cpm to the trail. We were relieved to see a lot of shade, hear the sound of water, and no traffic. The trail was beautiful and fragrant. We climbed to the top and arrived, Im guessing, around 5pm. This is not a good thing for those of you who want to do the same as the sun was beginning to set and fast. We had to hike down in the dark, thankfully we used the Edison road which was relatively with out incident albeit a few rocks we stumbled over. Good lesson learned: Bring a flash light. Especially if your unfamiliar with the area. It could help you out considerably.
All in all thoe it was a great hike, beatiful weather, and the people were friendly and mountain bikers were considerate. I'm going again!

Posted: November 6, 2005, 8:51 pm
by: Anonymous

I hiked this trail on Nov. 5. I liked it a lot because of the shaded spots and the creek that we followed during the first section. There was a pool of cool water that we passed and dipped our heads into to cool off. You are exposed to the sun the last portion of the trail so bring sun screen and lots of water. The views of Santa Barbara, the Channel Islands, Montecito and the shore line are great.

Posted: August 21, 2005, 9:33 pm
by: bainsb

Probably no one else would make this obvious mistake, but I thought I'd post it just in case! The directions tell you that shortly after you cross the stream at 1/2 mile, you'll see a sign for the trail on the left. Just to let you know - immediately after you cross the stream, the road splits. We thought the left way must be "the trail on the left", even though we couldn't find any sign. It turned out to be a long dirt road that is probably a service road for the power lines. It is very steep at points, and was a good workout! We finally turned around after about 1.5 miles and went back to the initial stream crossing, and took the right fork which quickly led to the trail sign. So we did get to hike on the actual trail, which was much prettier. Happy hiking!

Posted: August 2, 2005, 5:39 pm
by: Anonymous

Great hike-surprised at the amount of water, but beware of the bugs. No mosquitos to speak of, but the horseflys were out.

Posted: July 18, 2005, 3:32 pm
by: Anonymous

We went on Sunday, July 17, 2005. The hike was beautiful and there is still quite a bit of water in the creek that runs parallel to the trail. Be forewarned, though that the hike is uphill all the way to the trail intersection that takes you to Camino Cielo Road, which makes it feel like more than the 1.7 miles it actually is. The return trip down the trail is a blast, though!

Posted: July 10, 2005, 9:06 pm
by: Anonymous

We hiked today. It was as mentioned very overgrown. We hiked up the narrow trail then headed down. We didn't run into any rattlesnakes but saw lots and lots of lizards basking in the sun.

Posted: July 10, 2005, 6:06 pm
by: Anonymous

Hiked Romero trail today, Sunday, July 10th....it's slighty over grown but there is still some great water crossings and the water is still flowing....careful if you take the firebreak (we hiked up the narrow trail and down the firebreak)...ran into a very ticked off rattle snake who almost got a bite of us.....the trail at that point was very narrow with no passing him...squirted him with a water bottle and he slithered off into the brush...

Posted: March 23, 2005, 7:17 pm
by: Diane

Post your update here.

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