Summary: A short three mile hike in the Santa Monica Mountains, from Circle X Ranch to a mysterious water-filled cavern. No dogs allowed at the grotto or below.
To Get There: From Ventura you can take Las Posas Road to Highway 1, continue south until you get to Yerba Buena Road. The landmark here is Neptune’s Net, a local crab shack popular with the Cafe Racer set. Drive 5.3 miles to the Circle X Ranger Station. The station looks like a wild west general store from a B rated TV show. Here’s a Google Map to Circle X Ranch.
Notes: The drive up Yerba Buena is worth the trip alone. About two miles up the road you’ll swear that you’ve died and gone to Utah. The view of Boney Mountain is breathtaking. When you get to Circle X Ranch, park at the ranger station and walk down the service road to the group camp site. The Grotto Trail is clearly marked. Here’s a map of the area.
The trail itself is easy to follow, albeit a bit rocky in places. There are a couple of stream crossings, but the water is barely trickling this year. There is a nice waterfall about halfway…but it would be nicer if there was actual water to fall.
When you get down close to the Grotto be careful because the Poison Oak is pretty aggressive. It will reach across the trail and grab you by the collar. I had to do the limbo in a couple of spots to avoid the plant.
The Grotto itself is the result of a landslide of huge, school bus sized sedimentary boulders. I don’t know how a geologist would describe the conglomerate in this area but it looks to me like a natural form of concrete. Water forms a pool behind one of these boulders. The picture above doesn’t capture the effect–you wouldn’t be surprised to find a skeleton guarding a pirate treasure in this cave. Here’s a wav file of the sound of water in the grotto.
The book I used to find the trail, Day Hikes Around Ventura County
There’s some very nice boulder-hopping if you continue below the grotto itself. I went about a quarter of a mile further down the creek but I was losing daylight and so turned back. Overall a nice little hike that can be squeezed in on an evening after work.
