Santa Paula Peak Trail

[FIGHT ON]

Pretty flowers.

This weekend I decided to hike someplace where trails don't have snow and ice chutes. Waiting a few more weeks till it melts isn't so bad after all.

[magikwalt]

You just added another trail to my list of must do.

Great spring shot! Thank you.

[Hikin_Jim]

Wow. Outstanding photo. So is the Santa Paula Pk. Trail out in Ventura County? If so, what is the best exit off the 101?

[Rick M]

Gee, and I thought we saw millions of flowers (and poppys) on the mountain sides above Indian Wells (4,000') yesterday. The Santa Paula Pk Trail really kicks butt!

[FIGHT ON]

I know man. My favorite two flowers are Poppies and Lupine so I hit the JACKPOT. I was in heaven AND this picture does not show what you actually see there as far as how bright and vivid the colors are. When I put the pics from my camera on my hard drive they are like KathyWs pics. All glossy and perfect. If you like this pic, you will die there. I usually take around 100 pics per hike but took over 220 on this one. I have a friend that lives in Santa Clarita and he has been planning to go on this hike for years but never went. I had been bugging him often for the past year but he never had time. So I called him for the million and oneth time on Friday and begged him to go again and he said YES! So me and another friend drove out and met him near his house and the three of us then drove to where the trail starts. There really isn't much about this hike on the internet as far as official trail descriptions that I could find other than a trip report which ends saying something like "we ended up removing dozens of tics from each others pants at the end of the hike". The real problem on getting to the trail head is that you have to drive through a private ranch road that has a locked gate right off the highway. He had to call the ranch owner to get permission to enter the ranch on Friday. She gives you the combo for the gate and then you drive a few miles to her house and park off the dirt road just below it. He has her phone number and I will get it and pm you two so you can call her and get permission. I guess anyone can go but you have to ask first and then she gives you the combo for the gate. I have it but I'm not sure I should give it here and maybe she changes it often so it's best that you get it from the ranch owner. It's a nifty little hike. 5.5 miles to the peak and about of 5600 elevation gain. Something like 650 feet per mile. You cross a few slopes of not that scree stuff but bigger rocks, Talius? Really weird.The last leg goes right next to the edge of a really big drop off on a Talius slope which will scare anyone. It's really scarry but not dangerous only if you walk off the trail about 20 feet and look over the edge. You get panorama views of everywhere. I'm sure I could see Baldy from the top. Cell phones work too! I got a map off of TopoZone and taped them together from the main road to the peak. I have had bad experiences with Topozone on previous hikes like vivian creek but this trail was shown pretty well except for the last leg. It's really a fun hike and we saw NOBODY the whole hike. Started at six am and got back at one. It is just past Fillmore off the 126 and up a dirt road in Timber Canyon and the gate is on the north side. I will get her phone number and more details. I walked off trail through these fields of flowers w/o long pants and did not get one tick. never even saw any. Perfect hike!