The Wild Side of a Privately Run Park

Las Positas Friendship Park has everything a park should have: a developed side with picnic tables, soccer and softball fields, a war memorial and an amphitheater; and a wild side with vista points and hiking trails. Some park professionals call it a model park for the future.

Such acclaim comes not so much from its amenities (which are considerable) but from its style of operation. The park is a private one, open to the public but operated without governmental assistance by the Las Positas Friendship Park Foundation. In an era of park “defunding” and new private-public partnerships, Las Positas may very well be on the forefront of private-sector park management.

Because no tax dollars go to support the park, efforts to gain sponsorship and funding for park facilities are extraordinary. Some of these efforts may bring a smile to some park visitors. Everything appears to be sponsored, from the Wells Fargo Amphitheater to a massive oak tree “To Provide Shade for All of Santa Barbara,” courtesy of Mercedes-Benz. Traffic circle landscaping, picnic sites and even a flagpole are similarly sponsored.

But all these north-side improvements are more or less academic to hikers who trek the wild, south side of the park. Thus far, the park foundation has left well enough alone.

Recently the park more than doubled in size when 136 adjoining acres long known as the Jesuit Property were acquired. The California Province of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) purchased the property in 1927 with the intention of building a seminary to train men for the priesthood.

Certainly the then-isolated site, with its mountain and ocean views, might have been an ideal place for contemplation and the spiritual life. However, the number of men entering the priesthood declined, and the seminary was never built. The land was offered for sale several times to developers with plans to build a resort, an upscale retirement home and even a performing arts center, but a deal was never finalized.

Sierra Club Trail, constructed two years ago by the local chapter’s volunteers, loops up and along a north-facing ridge high above the developed part of the park. From the ridge top, the hiker gets an unusual view of downtown Santa Barbara, as well as its Santa Ynez mountains backdrop. You can walk from the ridge top over to Jesuit Hill, a 500-foot-wide promontory and hang-glider launch offering a grand view of the coast and the Channel Islands.

Directions to trail head: From U.S. 101 in Santa Barbara, exit on Las Positas Road and drive a mile south (toward the coast) to the entrance for Las Positas Friendship Park on the left. Follow the park road (Jerry Harwin Parkway) to the signed trail head on the right and to plenty of roadside parking.

The hike: Sierra Club Trail begins a mellow ascent through a tunnel of fennel. The licorice-scented thickets are joined by oak, some poison oak (be careful), sage and various members of the coastal scrub community.

Just as the trail crests the ridge, it bends sharply east and immediately gains a viewpoint. Park yourself on a boulder or the stone wall of the vista and admire the municipal view.

Continue along the ridge-top route. Sierra Club Trail makes a hairpin turn and starts its descent back to the trail head, but if you’d like to extend your walk, follow the less obvious trail skirting the agricultural fields and leading to flat-topped Jesuit Hill. Colorful streamers fluttering above the fennel indicate wind direction to hang gliders.

When you walk Jesuit Hill, you can understand why this land resisted developers. It’s a very steep slope and sparsely vegetated, with brick-hard clay soil. If you choose, you may walk one of the two dirt roads that extend from the top of the hill down toward a locked gate entry on Cliff Drive.

Enjoy the coastal and mountain views, then retrace your steps back to the Sierra Club Trail for the short descent back to the trail head.

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Sierra Club Trail

WHERE: Las Positas Friendship Park

DISTANCE: 1 -mile loop; to Jesuit Hill is 1 1/2-mile round trip.

TERRAIN: Grand views of coastal Santa Barbara.

HIGHLIGHTS: Unique private park.

DEGREE OF DIFFICULTY: easy-moderate

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Las Positas Friendship Park, 1298 Las Positas Road, Santa Barbara, CA 93105; tel. (805) 569-5611.