Santa Barbara County Trails and Mountain Canyons

View of Rattlesnake Canyon near Saint Mary's Seminary — Saint Mary's Retreat Center and Rattlesnake Canyon - 2024 Slideshow

Rattlesnake Canyon viewed from the meadow — Rattlesnake Canyon fire ecology — December 20, 2012 slideshow.

Rattlesnake Canyon view toward the sea — Rattlesnake Canyon — May 30, 2010 slideshow. Two fires had passed through the canyon: the Montecito Tea Fire in November 2008 and the Jesusita Fire in May 2009. Golden Yarrow, Morning Glory, Elegant Clarkia, and many other wildflowers were in bloom.

NASA satellite image of the Jesusita Fire in California — NASA Earth Observatory: Jesusita Fire, California — May 8, 2009.

The Jesusita Fire began May 6, 2009. By May 9, more than 8,000 acres had burned and more than 90 properties were damaged or lost.

Read Ray Ford’s article about the trails reopening after the Jesusita Fire.

Rattlesnake Canyon Trail after the fire — Rattlesnake Canyon after the November 2008 Tea Fire — March 28, 2009 slideshow.

I had a wonderful early spring hike up Rattlesnake Canyon Trail. It left me feeling uplifted to see the new growth after the gentle, nicely spaced rains that winter. The Goleta Mountains’ old burned areas looked green as well. I had worried about how the canyons would be after the fire, but Rattlesnake was just as wonderful—and perhaps even more so—because I could witness the miraculous recovery from fire.

Ceanothus blooming in Rattlesnake Canyon — Ceanothus in full bloom in the California chaparral — March 17, 2007 slideshow.

Rattlesnake Canyon — December 31, 2003
Late afternoon on the last day of the year.