Los Padres National Forest — Attraction in Santa Maria

Today my hike crew and I engaged a trail along Piru Creek in the southern end of Lockwood Valley in that Sespe Wilderness. We took the Fishbowl Trail to the FishBowls camp for snacky time and then up and over a mountain back to Cedar Creek camp. We were most certainly out in the sticks and far away from modern-day noises. I think on the whole 14-mile trek we heard the props from a single airplane far away.

It was a long hike but it is one I wanted to get off my bucket list for a long time. We started and ended at the Fish Bowl trailhead and camp. Following Piru Creek, we crossed a lot of Eocene marine delta deposits of Arkose-type sandstone as described by some USGS maps. Arkros is generally formed from the weathering of feldspar-rich igneous or metamorphic, most commonly granitic, rocks, which are primarily composed of quartz and feldspar.

The other thing we noticed was the most horned lizards I have ever seen! I always feel lucky when I see at least one horned lizard, in this case, I think we saw about 20 altogether on the trail and this made me happy. Too bad there were not enough of them to keep the bugs at bay. We downed our bug nets and continued all the way till we reached the Fishbowl Camp and snacky time!

The Fishbowl camp was nestled amongst some impressive massive boulders next to a grove of Manzanita We made our way to the Fish Bowls which are a set of deep pools in the Upper Piru Creek. That strangely enough has a lot of fish! We even saw a good-sized trout.

We moved on over a massive mountain of sandstone deposits and back down the other side to the Cedar Creek camp with... You guessed it, some big honking Cedar trees. It was really neat hiking down the side of the mountain and seeing exposed and weathered sandstone it made for some unique formations and a unique setting.

After Cedar Creek camp it was another 5 miles to the trailhead and fire road back to where we started. The group really made up for speed on the fire road and the relive video below shows the our top speed was on the fire road.

Here is my Relive...

This is the three bridges trail in atascadero. Very nice, well kept wide paths. For those who complain about it being slightly sloped, grow up. It's a hiking trail. Keep it on the road if it's such a problem. Right now is the best. It's raining, it's gorgeous, there's lots of trees and native plants and at the moment salamanders/newts are making a break to the lower areas (water) by the hundreds so watch your step. They are slow and difficult to see. I run this trail with my dog and because it's raining there's no one else out which is prefect since most people in this day in age are complete garbage. Beside the point. It's a great trail. Steady incline, not too steep, perfect for running, beautiful terrain and my only real complaint is the "summit" though a decent view of a small portion of the North county is not as cool as it backs up to the remaining Hill and the view is maybe a 180°. But I...

"Beautiful" doesn't begin to describe the Los Padres! Several small camping sites, with maintained bathrooms, built up fire pits, and picnic tables. You can get an annual pass for four of the national parks for an extremely nominal fee. The roads to many of the camping areas are very rough and narrow. Great for RTVs and hiking, and hunting is allowed. Would not suggest trying some of the roads with an RV or car, or staying during any amount of rain. Four-wheel drive is a must in some areas, and wouldn't suggest trailers; many of the roads are very narrow, just wide enough for one vehicle, with very few places to turn around. Be sure to have plenty of fuel, and water. Surprisingly, cell phone service worked great in most of the remote areas we stopped at. The park is closed during the winter months, with snow chains required on the highway...