The family was in Santa Barbara for move-in weekend at UCSB. Jackie's alotted
move-in time wasn't until Sunday, giving us all Saturday for some recreation.
While
Mom was off doing a Women's Empowerment 5K run near the beach, Jackie and I
picked up Uncle Ron who lives in town and did an easy hike to Inspiration
Point. It's a popular hike that branches off from the Tunnel Trail,
possibly
the most popular trailhead in the entire county. The route is about
2.5mi one-way, gaining about 1,000ft in the process. Almost all of it is on
service roads or good trail. There are swell views
overlooking the city, the Channel Islands and the wide, blue Pacific Ocean
from a number of possible overlook spots near the highpoint. We found a
well-groomed use trail leading to the highest rocks, but there isn't
more than 100ft of prominence on this one. The higher point behind it is
Cathdral Peak,
a much more involved hike with some easy class 3 and moderate bushwhacking with
poison oak, from what I remember. We were going to make a loop of our hike by
returning on Skyview Ridge Rd and even started down that way to the west, but
Ron had some business to attend to that was going to put a rush on the longer
return, so we eventually thought better of the idea and returned the way we had
come. We did take a slight detour to follow a dry creekbed back down
to one of the bridges on the Tunnel Trail, a fun bit of class 3
scrambling just before finishing up. Time to head to the beach...
Tunnel Trail,
possibly
the most popular 
trailhead in the entire county. The route is about
2.5mi one-way, gaining about 1,000ft in the process. Almost all of it is on
service roads or good trail. There are 
swell views
overlooking the city, the Channel Islands and the wide, blue Pacific Ocean
from a number of possible overlook spots near 
the highpoint. We found a
well-groomed 
use trail leading to the highest rocks, but there isn't
more than 100ft of prominence on this one. The higher point behind it is
Cathdral Peak,
a much more involved hike with some easy class 3 and moderate bushwhacking with
poison oak, from what I remember. We were going to make a loop of our hike by
returning on Skyview Ridge Rd and even started down that way to the west, but
Ron had some business to attend to that was going to put a rush on the longer
return, so we eventually thought better of the idea and returned the way we had
come. We did take a slight detour to follow a 
dry creekbed back down
to one of the 
bridges on the Tunnel Trail, a fun bit of class 3
scrambling just before 
finishing up. Time to head to the beach...