Trails: West Camino Cielo

View North of Santa Ynez Mountains

Translated roughly into English, Camino Cielo means “skyway.” The name is apt, seeing that the road follows the ridgeline of the Santa Ynez mountains above Goleta. The views are spectacular, especially to the west of Condor Point.

I rode this route on my dualsport bike this past week. It’s a nice, easy way to start getting back into the habit of riding on loose and rocky soil. Don’t forget to turn off your anti-lock brake system if you’ve got one because right off the bat you come to a hairpin turn and a fairly long downhill section.

More than three quarters of the route are unpaved (Forest route 5N12). Your lowrider will drag bumper on a lot of this trail, but any vehicle with decent clearance should be able to handle it. The road is graded, trees and bushes are trimmed regularly. For motorcycles: most of the road is firmly packed but there are stretches of loose sand or gravel. All along the route you’re likely to encounter softball-sized rocks that have tumbled down from the hills above.

There are numerous opportunities for hiking and exploration in this area, such as Lizard’s Mouth, a popular bouldering hot spot. With popularity sometimes comes broken bottles, shotgun shells and graffiti.

I’ve heard talk, but never seen with my own eyes, that there are numerous unmapped native American cave paintings in this area. People who find these paintings tend to keep them secret to protect them from vandalism.

The Big Deal

This is a tough ride east-to-west close to sunset because the sun is either 1.) directly in your eyes or 2.) cast dark shadows over rough spots in the road that you really need to see. Consider running west-to-east in late afternoon and the opposite way in the early morning. This said, the sunsets are spectacular when you’re going in a westerly direction.

Distance: 19.1 miles
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Tagged as: Trails