Next

Monticeto Peak/Cold Springs Trail

April 2005

Although I'd lived in Santa Barbara for over five years, I had never really gotten out and done any of the frontcountry hikes in the foothills. I always sought the solitude of the backcountry in the Santa Ynez Valley or even further. April would be the month where that would change a bit. One weekend a friend and I were going to try to hike the Cathedral Peak trail, but once we got to the trailhead I started feeling a bit off from some leftovers I ate in the morning. After some recovery time in the afternoon, we got back together to go out for a late afternoon/evening hike.

Looking at a map we found a trail that had an incline that looked like we might be able to do in a couple of hours: the Cold Springs Trail heading up to Montecito Overlook and Peak. I had never been in this area before. A delightful little trail wound its way up through a creek running along the bottom of a canyon. There were numerous little waterfalls and wading pools. The water was still nice and cool. The trail then left the creek and started gradually climbing up around one of the mountains. At the top was a wonderful sunset and sweeping views of Santa Barbara and Montecito, just enough to be able to pick out all of the land that I for one can't afford to buy!

The Photographs

I had finally purchased a set of ND filters and gotten that photography itch and was glad to be out trying some different things. I only found one shot where I thought I could use the filters, and I was pleased with how it brought some detail to the sky without killing detail in the shadowed mountainside. Now that I have these with me I just need to be more aware of contrasting lighting and figuring out how to use them best.

The pictures were taken with my Minolta system on a roll of Kodachrome PKR 64 (though I was kicking myself for leaving the PKL at home, not expecting the foliage to be so dense!). Click "Next" in the upper right to begin.