Hell's Half Acre/McKinley Peak

Hell's Half Acre is an interesting rock formation on McKinley Road about 5.5 miles from the start at Cachuma Saddle on Happy Canyon Road. McKinley Peak is one of the highest peaks in Santa Barbara County, over 6000ft. high (1564 meters).

The trail is really a dirt road, but the road is closed to traffic, unless you have a forest service key to unlock the gate. The road can be steep at times as it winds its way along the crest of the San Rafael range and along the San Rafael Wilderness boundary. There are firs and pines, meadows and rocky outcrops along the way. It is an excellent bicycling route.

Along McKinley road is the junction with the Big Cone Spruce trail which has a nice, shady camp along a creek (after quite a steep drop from the road). The Big Cone Spruce trail eventually meets up with the Manzana trail just beyond the Narrows camp, making this a possible loop or car shuttle back pack trip. The Big Cone Spruce trail does get quite overgrown with poison oak along the bottom portions, however. At the end of McKinley Road is the trail head to Mission Pine Springs and beyond, wonderful backpacking destinations, and the trail head to Santa Cruz Mountain and beyond.

The total round-trip mileage to McKinley Peak is about 20 miles, making this a strenuous hike. However, on the rainiest and most miserable and cold day imagineable a couple of 60+ year old women were observed jogging to McKinley Peak, a weekly ritual, so how hard could it be? (Famous last words, eh? Believe me those ladies are TOUGH.)

The total round trip mileage to Hell's Half Acre is about 12, and it's pretty tough, too.

The GPS waypoint information was donated by Alex Chernikov.

You will need an Adventure Pass to park at the trailhead.

Hell's Half Acre/McKinley Peak Updates

Update trail conditions

Posted: December 6, 2011, 5:18 pm
by: carp_nb

Yep, that's the spot. You can park on that upper plateau with what looks like a puddle on your last image and then start your walk (or mtn bike ride) at the locked gate. You'll walk the dirt road for the full ~8 miles or so to the McKinley Springs camp. A couple of miles into the walk, you'll pass a water tank and hitching posts, then Hell's Half Acre.

The camp will be on your left hand side, just below the road. There's a steady spring there with reliable water. You'll be pretty shaded in there (it's more or less north-facing), so plan for chilly temps. Short (uphill) hike from camp to summit McKinley and San Rafael Peaks.

Posted: December 6, 2011, 4:50 pm
by: tablepost998

Thanks for the tips!

One more question:

I scouted out Cachuma Saddle last week to make sure I knew where to start out the trek. I found the sign saying Cachuma saddle, and the dirt road off to the east as described in hiking guides to Mckinley Mountain.

The only thing that was missing was the abandoned ranger station everyone described. I saw something that resembled a small abandoned hut (ranger station?) a little bit back at Cachuma campground, but not here near the saddle sign.

Just wanted to make sure I have the right spot. here are some pictures I took of where I am going to begin the hike, tell me if I got it right:



I assume you follow the windy road around the bends, not straight up this hill on the fire trail:



and here's a photo looking back at the road/parking lot area:


Thanks!

Posted: December 6, 2011, 3:31 pm
by: toejam

The biggest bear I've seen in the backcountry was at McKinley Spring scratching his back on the water tank beside the road. I shouted, "Hey bear!" He looked at me startled and went crashing down the mountainside as fast as he could.

San Rafael bears are the good kind - the ones that run away. I heard a story of an aggressive bear that roamed the upper Sisquoc years ago, but haven't heard of any others being aggressive or bothersome.

Don't make big messes or leave stuff laying around, and hang everything at night. I'd be a lot more worried about the cold than the bears.

Posted: December 6, 2011, 10:43 am
by: carp_nb

Hi there Tablepost998,

In my personal opinion, I wouldn't worry too much about bears, just take some basic precautions and use common sense. While I've seen lots of bear activity in parts of the San Rafael (including around Mission Pine Springs), the bears in the LPNF are still pretty afraid of humans and tend not to want to have interactions with us (as opposed to Sierra bears that know humans = easy food pickings from messy camps). If they know you're around, they'll stay clear of the area.

Here's what I do for my trips: All food, food wrappers, and anything with a scent (toothpaste, soap, toothbrush, sunscreen, etc.) all goes into an odor proof sack (OP Sack, I think it's called) and then gets put into a stuff sack and hung from a tree limb a little away from camp (~100-150'). Look up the PCT bear bag hang method for proper bear hang technique. You want a branch that's at least 20' high, and strong enough to hold your food bag, but not strong enough for a bear to climb out on it and swipe your food bag.

Pots, bowls, cups, etc. get washed and left out in camp, a little off away from the sleeping area. I don't bring lots of extra clothes, but if my clothes smelled like food (like I spilled on them or something), I'd probably leave them outside, and away from my tent.

Hope that helps. Have fun up there, plan for it to be cold!

Posted: December 5, 2011, 10:39 pm
by: tablepost998

Hello everyone,

I'm going on two night backpacking trip up to the Mckinley mountain area with some friends this month. We will be camping out at Mckinley cold springs. This will be my first time overnight up in this area. I was wondering what the appropriate bear countermeasures would be for this area during this time of year, and figured there would be no better place to ask than here.

My concern is mostly in dealing with when we camp for the night, dealing with food and scented hygiene items.

So far, I have told everyone not to bring any scented deodorant, chap stick, or lotion. I plan on stringing all of our food up at night in a bear bag up in a tree away from our camp site.

For this camping location this time of year, should I take it any further than that? Such as stringing up in the tree along with the food clothing that was worn during cooking of food, along with toothpaste and pots and pans? Separating our packs from where we sleep, etc, as if we were in Yosemite?

I want to be safe while at the same time not spending tons of time and labor going overboard if its not necessary. Any insight from people familiar with the area would great! Thank you.

Posted: October 19, 2011, 10:21 pm
by: kfox527

See the following link for a brief report of this trail
http://www.santabarbarahikes.com/community/phpbb/viewtopic.php?p=4021#4021

-Kfox

Posted: August 1, 2011, 11:25 am
by: Cross Tie Walker

As part of a longer trip (see http://www.santabarbarahikes.com/community/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=884&sid=b56ca68812c70a19e9420f5d0e7e7a13), ZK and I hiked the road from Cachuma Saddle to McKinley Saddle week before last. Road's in great shape; still plenty of water at McKinley Spring camp.



Took a side hike up to McKinley Mountain and the old AWS cabin ruins; see http://www.craigrcarey.net/2011/07/lookout-mckinley-mountain/

CTW

Posted: June 22, 2011, 8:50 pm
by: TheBeeman

Link to trip pictures of our recon up McKinley Road to MPS:

https://picasaweb.google.com/beemancron/2011McKinleyFireRoadToMissionPineSpringsCamp

Happy Trails

Posted: June 20, 2011, 10:47 am
by: carp_nb

Did a recon out to Mission Pine Springs with the Beeman and the Masticator over the weekend (6/18-19)for the VWRs. We were able to drive McKinely Road from Cachuma Saddle to the trailhead at McKinley Saddle. The road isn't open to the public for driving but it's in pretty good shape overall and easiy passable to a hiker, biker or stock user. Lots of water in the tanks/trough at the stock staging area and the spring at McKinley Springs is doing okay too.

The trail to Mission Pine Springs is looking pretty good. Visible tread the whole way. We pruned back some encroaching brush along the way, cleared about 8-10 12" or smaller pines that had fallen across the trail and tried to add cairns or other markers to help folks find/stay on the trail. There's a few bigger trees across sections of the trail that the VWR sawyers will be coming back for in a couple of weeks.

Mission Pine Springs was great. Lots of water coming out of the spring and still stready trickles in the nearby creeks. We cleaned up camp a bit, hiked a little ways towards Mission Pine Basin and cleared a few more trees, etc.

All in all, it was a great overnighter. The SB high route is a great late spring/early summer destination. If you head out there, it wouldn't hurt to pack a small hand saw and/or some loppers and help maintain the trail. With all the wind, more of the burned trees from the Zaca Fire will be coming down over the next few years.

Posted: April 26, 2011, 1:05 pm
by: tepcanfam

Hardly any snow left, just a few patches. Beautiful partly cloudy day. Mountain biked to the Wilderness boundery, walked up to San Rafael.