Santa Paula Canyon was a favorite place to go after some rain while a student in Santa Barbara. A walk past a quiet private college, orchards, and petroleum pumpjacks leads to a wild valley of monstrous landslides, great cliffs of tilted sediments, perennial waterfalls and plunge pools. Most visitors stop at the first waterfall ("Santa Paula Falls" or mistakenly called the Punchbowl) and its pleasant swimming hole as the graffiti and trash will attest to. Fewer know that a scenic gorge exists directly above or another gorge a short distance even further with more swimming, cliff jumping and sliding options. I had been as far as an area called Jackson Hole before that featured two modest sized waterfalls. It was not until years later when I had my canyoning interest firmly cemented that I realized from aerial photos that there was an interesting looking slot canyon much further upcanyon as well as a 200ft waterfall and some smaller falls. To the best of my knowledge no one had descended these before so I got it into my mind that I'd like to do a first descent at some point. The entry restriction for 2017's Thomas Fire had recently been lifted and reports I could find were that the lower valley was in good shape post-fire. It would be a little ambitious but I planned a pre-traffic escape Friday, which enabled a hike in to camp at the bottom of the middle gorge just before nightfall. The hike was as I remembered it; the grotto camping spot was even better- I think more sediment had been deposited to make a gravel bar where before there was just a large pool. Unfortunately many others had found this spot and decided to leave an obscene amount of graffiti, trash, and toilet paper at this beautiful spot. That didn't stop me from enjoying this place, and I had a great evening in the hammock enjoying the remarkably comfortable temperature.
After a good night’s sleep and a leisurely morning, gear was packed for the day’s canyon and the rest of the camping gear was stashed behind a boulder nearby. It took a little scrambling effort finding the start of the middle gorge bypass trail but once we did we were on our way. The trail that bypassed the middle gorge by switchbacked the shabby slopes to its side but after a short scramble it was found. The entire slope was deeply charred from the Thomas Fire and at several points the regenerating vegetation was such that it was actually easier to cut the switchbacks. Detouring to the edge of the slope to peer into the gorge below usually offered pretty dramatic views. At the top of the dip slope slab it was time to start traversing into the drainage and this is where the fire damage became unbearable. We struggled through collapsed charred skeletons of regenerating chaparral while avoiding abundant poison oak. At many points the trail was unfollowable requiring slow and annoying detours. Progress was painfully slow, scratchy, and dirty. After recording progress in hundreds of feet after a half hour it was becoming an exercise in masochism and I began to see the day’s original plan slipping away from us. It was clear no one had hiked this stretch since the fire. This was miserable and we needed an out. Just shy of Jackson Hole we gave up and I rigged a rope as a hand line to climb down a crumbling sediment cliff to the streambed. This also sucked but soon enough reached the streambed which was thankfully excellent travel by comparison. We hiked upstream about 10 minutes to reach Jackson Hole where we stopped for a snack on the slab by rock. Both waterfalls were disappointingly dry but the area did have some really interesting springs and a short distance below some deep pools with fish. The upper canyon would have to wait another day.
After a sufficient rest we hiked along the stream, which again was easy rock hopping travel that could be done with dry feet. After about a half mile tilted sandstone slabs of bedrock began appearing in the stream, while at the same time the cliffs lining the creek closed in to form a gorge. We bypassed a few small falls until we found a feature too tempting to pass up: a perfect 50 ft slab with a thin veneer of water running over it and a slippery coating of algae. Wanting to give the slide a try, we both suited up and took turns. The slide was fantastic; the water was rudely cold! I repeated five or six times which was enough for a brain freeze and an interest in moving on. A short distance downstream was the main event, the wickedly steep and long 150ft slide I remembered. This is perhaps the longest natural waterslide in southern California. It was as intimidating as I remembered but unfortunately there was much more graffiti than I remembered. We both started small on the slide, entering at about the 20ft mark to be sure we understood the speed generated. Gradually I worked my way higher and higher up the slide until plopping in the pool at the top of the 150ft. For my first full run I started in control with my hands and feet controlling my descent speed to some degree. When that seemed ok I decided to go for an unhindered slide the next time around. This got me going much too fast, bouncing off of small bumps uncontrollably, feet veering sideways instead of in front of me and almost banking outside of the channel while narrowly avoiding the wall at the bottom. Fun but the next few runs I chose to remain in control...
After we both had our fill of the slide we continued on down the gorge with a little rock scrambling, ledge traversing, and downclimbing to bypass the deepest pools. In a few short minutes we were back at the final falls and grotto at the end of the gorge. Here I fished out the backpack with the camping gear from behind a rock and awkwardly carried two packs down to the bedrock patio area at the top of the lower gorge. Here we ran into a group that looked a little baffled to see us in wetsuits and helmets.
We carefully downclimbed the slippery falls into the lower gorge and jumped into the flooded corridor, swimming as quick as we could to minimize immersion in the freezing water. Another downclimb and another flooded corridor led to the terminal horizonline of Santa Paula Falls. I peered over and was a little tempted to jump but listened to reason. The height was not bad but the slippery push off and bad geometry required a strong outward jump with some potential to screw up. So instead we upclimbed back to the first flooded corridor and I had my fill jumping in from the side of the gorge. After three or four times brain freeze kicked in and I was done. We carefully climbed the knotted rope up the steep side of the gorge, grabbed gear, and hiked around to the bottom of Santa Paula Falls.
Though half in the sun and inviting, the final pool was just as cold as the others! I climbed the slippery falls and had one last jump off the side. We dried, changed, and snacked in the sun before repacking everything and hiking back up and out the trail.
The hike out was without incident and we made good time back to the car. We broke up the drive with a meal in Pasadena, then onward to Riverside. The fire damage, bushwhacking and graffiti were kind of a bummer but Santa Paula Canyon remains a pretty rare southern California gem. Given the accessibility and scenery it was great to be the only people camping in the canyon.
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