Dragon’s Back Hike

By Robert Bernstein

Cathedral Peak is one of the most beautiful hikes in the front country. Unfortunately for many, it is also one of the most strenuous. On Sunday I led a Sierra Club hike that gave a good taste of that hike without being too strenuous. We hiked just the first part of the Dragon’s Back of the Cathedral Peak Trail. It has been almost two years since I last led this hike.

Here are all my photos!

From most of Santa Barbara, you can see this huge triangular rock formation in the mountains that looks like a giant pipe organ. The Dragon’s Back is the right hand edge of that pipe organ.

Sunday was in between storms, so there was no rain and we had a pleasant hiking temperature. The forecast was for strong winds, but it turned out to be calm and clear the entire time!

Here our wonderful group started up the Inspiration Point trail from Tunnel Road! Christian, Kenny, Martin, Tatiana, Elliott, Lydonna, Carlos, Avi and Linda. Yay!

Here we left the main trail to Inspiration Point. Good to see the pool filled with water!

Here I posed with Tatiana who is one of my loyal hiking fans. We were on the overlook rock above the start of Seven Falls

Down below at that first of the seven falls you could see some adventurous young people!

Then we headed up the steep climb to the Dragon’s Back!

We picked a fairly random spot to stop for a snack and hang out for awhile. Linda found a cozy spot in this massive rock!

Carlos found a more precarious spot to hang out!

Here we posed after our snack

And then we made our descent. The descent takes just as long as the ascent, due to the challenging rocky, steep terrain.

Plenty of beautiful scenery to enjoy along the Dragon’s Back ridge!

Remember that you can see all of our Sierra Club hike listings here!
http://www.santabarbarahikes.com/hikes/sierraclub/listing