Jack Elliott's Santa Barbara Adventure

I went up to Rose Valley Falls yesterday. It’s a series of two main waterfalls, but only flows with any volume or force during heavy rains or snow melt and immediately there after. Even in those circumstances it’s not a gusher.

When I arrived there was a thin layer of hail covering Rose Valley Campground and low clouds. Two RVs were parked with nobody in sight. There was also a guy in an SUV with a tarp draped from its door and on over the picnic bench. He had a small tent pitched.

I walked up the trail to the falls in light intermittent rain. From the lower waterfall I climbed up the steep, rocky hillside covered in patches of slushy snow and to the shaley hilltop below the main waterfall. It started to snow big heavy flakes.

The sound of rushing water filled the small canyon and all four cascades were flowing. Standing on the hilltop, the rocky face of the mountain stood like a wall wrapping around me from left to right. The main waterfall flowed in front of me and two other cascades streamed over the rocks to my right. A lone crow flew about high above the creek and was my only company.

Hilltop view of the main waterfall, the other two cascades are out of frame to my right and another one behind me to the left.

Rose Valley Falls, Los Padres National Forest, Ventura County, California

The east cascade.

Rose Valley Falls

The middle cascade.

The west cascade.