Cathedral Peak Back Way Trail Reopened

By Robert Bernstein

Arlington Peak is one of the most visible rock formations in the Santa Barbara area. Many people refer to this formation as “Cathedral Peak” because it looks a bit like an array of pipe organ pipes. Cathedral Peak is actually a small peak behind Arlington Peak.

Here is what this rock formation looks like as seen from La Cumbre Plaza:

The usual route to climb Arlington Peak is to start at the Tunnel Road trailhead and go up the trail to Inspiration Point, but cut off at the stream crossing as if going to Seven Falls. Then there is another unnamed trail that goes up the “Dragon’s Back” starting at the right end of that massive rock formation.

It is a spectacular hike that involves lots of rock scrambling. Here are photos when I led a Sierra Club hike about half way up the Dragon’s Back in 2016.

But there is also a lesser-known trail that starts near Inspiration Point and goes to a point near Cathedral Peak, behind Arlington Peak. I will call this the “back way” to Cathedral Peak.

Here are photos of me leading a complete loop up the Dragon’s Back and down this back way. This was with friends who were visiting from Europe back in 2005.

That route was very difficult to follow back then and I actually got a bit lost on that occasion. I am grateful that I eventually figured out the correct route and we got back safely. But I never tried doing that route again. After the Jesusita Fire in 2009 burned that area the trail was pretty much obliterated and was later overgrown.

Well, someone has recently reopened that “back way” trail and I decided to scout it out. Here are my many photos arranged in several galleries.

This set of photos shows my ascent on the regular Jesusita Trail, starting at Tunnel Road, up to the point of branching off on the “back way” trail.

Most local hikers will recognize this route. The last photos in that set show the area of this “secret” trail. I was pleased to see quite a few flowers as well as the first of many blue-belly fence lizards:

When I was up there a week earlier I even saw this rabbit in the brush, which was a rare sighting on that trail:

But then began the interesting part: Following this newly reopened trail on up. The first section still has quite a few dead branches across the trail. This is still left over from the Jesusita Fire. But none of them present a major obstacle. Some of them even form beautiful little tunnels like this:

After about a half hour on this trail I came to a big oak tree:

A few minutes later I was treated to a view of this tree sprouting from a rock:

After another few minutes I came to what seemed to be a “dead end” with a massive rock:

But a friend who had scouted this before me told me I just need to climb this rock and the trail will continue. Sure enough, this was correct and I continued on my way!

After another half hour of hiking I came to a rock terrace with a spectacular view. I arranged a photo using the camera self timer on this terrace:

You can see the Dragon’s Back directly behind me. Below was a clear view of downtown Santa Barbara and the Harbor:
I hiked for another 45 minutes and came to what seemed to be another “dead end” rock:

Below was a magnificent view of the Lauro Reservoir and that side of the Jesusita Trail and out to Hendry’s Beach.

I had started hiking around 9AM from the Tunnel Road gate. I was running low on water and it was now noon. My altimeter showed that I was up 1750 feet from the gate. Which meant I was about 75% of the way to the top. I am sure I can scale that “dead end” rock just as I scaled the other one down below. Perhaps another time I will return to this trail with more water.

But I wanted to share this information because I am happy to see this trail reopened. Trails can only stay open if people use them. I very much enjoyed the experience of being out on a trail with no one else on it. But I also know that it won’t last long if it stays a secret. It will soon get overgrown again.

Just as I began to descend, a turkey vulture circled right above me.

On my descent I took this panorama image of the full extent of Arlington Peak and the Dragon’s Back:

Please check out the rest of my photos from this hike. I have even included this gallery of some of the flowers and animals I saw along the way.

This may be the last challenging hike I do for a while. I will be going in for surgery this Friday for an epigastric hernia. I will be able to get back to easy hikes after that, but it may take time to get back to rock climbing and other challenges.

So, I invite you to enjoy my photos and if you are up for a bit of an adventure, check out this “new” trail that has been brought back from the past!