Canyon Tranquil in Winter

Small waterfalls, wading pools and a gently flowing creek are some of the attractions of tranquil Santa Paula Canyon. The canyon is quite pleasant now and even more so when winter rains swell Santa Paula Creek. The trail winds along the river bed through the canyon and visits some perfect-for-a-picnic trail camps.

The lovely trail begins at St. Thomas Aquinas College, and near a malodorous oil field once owned by infamous oilman and Southern California booster Edward Lawrence Doheny. Doheny’s discoveries of black gold in 1892 made him an extremely wealthy man and initiated the first oil-industry boom in Los Angeles. (Doheny’s 30-room mansion is located behind iron gates just off California 150.)

During the Harding administration, Doheny received drilling rights on federal land in Elk Hills without undergoing the inconvenience of competitive bidding. A 1923 Senate investigation of the “Teapot Dome Scandal” uncovered Doheny’s $100,000 loan to Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall and led to Fall’s conviction for accepting a bribe; Doheny, however, was acquitted of offering one.

Floods periodically sweep Santa Paula Canyon and wash out the trail. And Los Padres National Forest administrators periodically take the trail off the forest map. Mapped or not, Santa Paula Canyon Trail is a great walk. Some of the peaks around the canyon are now being considered for a wilderness designation.

Directions to the trailhead: From the junction of California 33 and 150 in Ojai, head east from town on the latter road about 9 1/2 miles to the bridge spanning Santa Paula Creek. The trailhead is located at the entrance to St. Thomas Aquinas College/Ferndale Ranch on the north side of the road, but you continue on California 150 across the Santa Paula Creek bridge to a wide turnout on the south side of the highway. A sign informs you that the Santa Paula Canyon trail begins across the highway 500 feet away.

The Hike: From the often-guarded Ferndale Ranch/college entrance, you’ll ignore a road leading to the oil fields and follow the asphalt drive onto the college grounds. The road curves around wide green lawns and handsome classrooms. At a few junctions, signs keep “Hikers” away from the route taken by “Oil Field Traffic.” A bit more than a half-mile from the trailhead, you pass an orchard and some cows, pass through a pipe gate and finally reach Santa Paula Creek and the true beginning of Santa Paula Canyon Trail.

The trail travels a short distance with Santa Paula Creek, crosses it, then joins a retiring dirt road--your route to Big Cone Camp. After crossing the creek again, the trail begins a moderate-to-stiff climb up a slope bearing the less-than-lyrical name of Hill 1989. The trail then descends to Big Cone Camp, perched on a terrace above Santa Paula Creek.

Just below the camp, the trail, now a narrow footpath, descends to the creek. As you descend, you’ll look up-canyon and spot a waterfall and a swimming hole.

The trail crosses Santa Paula Creek and switchbacks up to an unsigned junction. A right at this junction leads you above the east fork of Santa Paula Canyon 3 1/2 miles on a poor, unmaintained trail to Cienega Camp. Hardy hikers will enjoy bushwhacking along to this camp, set in a meadowland shaded by oak and big-cone spruce.

A left at the above-mentioned junction leads north up Santa Paula Canyon past some inviting pools. The path, sometimes called Last Chance Trail, climbs a mile to Cross Camp, another big-cone spruce-shaded retreat. Here Santa Paula Creek offers some nice falls and great swimming holes in the springtime, if you decide to wait for the rainy season. Caution: After a good rain, the creek current can be quite strong.

Santa Paula Canyon Trail

Santa Paula Canyon

to Big Cone Camp

6 miles round trip;

800-foot gain

Santa Paula Canyon

to Cross Camp

8 miles round trip;

900-foot gain