San Marcos Foothills New West Mesa Hike

By Robert Bernstein

Al Sladek recently led a Sierra Club Friday morning hike at San Marcos Foothills. I asked if he could please take us through the new West Mesa area. This area had been set for development. Just in the nick of time the community came together and raised money to buy it to expand the San Marcos Foothills Preserve! Al obliged and took us for a tour of that area and on to the rest of the Preserve!

Here are all of my photos.

This sign greeted us to the new West Mesa area, noting the Chumash heritage of this land.We headed toward the mountains on the rather wide trail.Here was the view downhill toward the Channel.As we continued Al posed with Kenny on the left and Martin on the right with the mountains as a beautiful backdrop. You may recognize Kenny Learned for many years in the news as he was an entomologist with the Mosquito and Vector Management District of Santa Barbara County. He is one of my favorite hike leaders because he really knows the local plants and wildlife.We continued on…We looped back toward the main part of the Preserve and we were treated to this delightful view.Then this view.We made our way up a steep hill toward the overlook at the top.Here is a panoramic view from the overlook.Here is another view.
We posed for a group photo at the overlook as well!Somebody made this little offering at the overlook before we arrived.You can see all of the local upcoming Sierra Club hikes here!