About the Live Oak Trails

I would like to share my experiences when visiting the Live Oak Trails.

While first walking the trails, I was struck by the grandeur of the scenery, far away from sounds of human activity. I imagined myself to be immersed in an unblemished California landscape during the age of the ranchos and vaqueros. Magnificent valley oaks graced the potreros, leaving space for sweeping panoramas of nearby mountain ranges. From the top of Chalk Hill, I had a 360-degree view starting with the Santa Ynez Range to the south, the San Rafael to the north, the Santa Ynez River watershed to the east, while in the west were the blue-green waters of Lake Cachuma.

Even though it was late in the season during a dry year I saw a wide variety of wildflowers along the way. Among the flora were California wild rose, Chinese houses, Clarkia, clustered tarweed, coast morning glory, datura, hummingbird and purple sages, Indian milkweed and paintbrush, larkspur, mariposa lily, monkey flower, purple nightshade, yerba santa, vetch, winecup Clarkia, western vervain, yarrow, and yucca. There were even a few fairy lanterns and an owl’s clover. Frequently the sides of the trail were decorated by hundreds of lavender Clarkia bottae blossoms. As contrasted to other Santa Barbara County trails, there were few noxious weeds.