San Antonio Creek Hike

Most of my hikes involve some rock scrambling or off-trail oddities. During the recent hot weather I did something unusual and led a fairly flat, easy hike that was on a normal trail! The San Antonio Creek Trail, starting at Tucker’s Grove Park and ending at the bridge at Highway 154. For the Humanist Society of Santa Barbara. Here are my photos.

The trail is flat, but there are several stream crossings that could be a challenge for some people.

There was also some erosion in places.

One highlight comes a bit more than half way along the trail: A dam.

There is an easy trail that leads to the top of the dam. But it is fun to walk up the side of the dam and realize it is not that difficult! Here is my video of Jeff and Ariah following behind me.

Of course, we posed for a group photo on top of the dam.

Castor bean plants were imported from Africa for the oil they produce. In California, they have become invasive. Here we passed through a colonnade of castor bean plants.

This Western fence lizard eyed us from the leaf litter by the trail. They are sometimes called blue belly lizards.

A couple of people who lived nearby stopped to take our photo when we arrived at Highway 154.

We continued from there down underneath the bridge.

I do not approve of graffiti vandalism, but I will say that this at least had some artistic quality. The first photo was by Steve Wall

It is ever-changing. Here is a photo I took there in 2018.

There used to be some interesting relics in that area, including an abandoned car from the 1950s or so. I am actually sorry that these relics were removed. I have many happy memories as a child discovering and playing around such things.

We made our way back on the same trail, including the stream crossings.