Canyon View Trail & The Grotto Trail

Date: Sunday, April 17, 2011
Time: 9:45 AM
Length: 7 miles roundtrip – 4 hours
Difficulty: Moderate
Configuration:  In and back each segment
Exposure:  Sun/Shade

Circle X Ranch is located on the grounds of a former Boy Scout camp about 5 miles north of the Pacific Ocean and provides a great sampling of some of the best scenery in the Santa Monica Mountains with open fields, shady streambeds, a Live Oak forest and incredible volcanic/sandstone rock walls/formations.  It ends in a lush grotto overgrown with oaks, bay laurel, sycamores and ferns.  Nearby is Sandstone Peak, the highest point in the Santa Monica Mountain range at 3111 feet.

CANYON VIEW TRAIL - Length: 1.9 miles each way. Elevation change: 500 feet. This trail parallels Yerba Buena Road running from the Sandstone Peak trail head to the grotto trail near the group campground at Circle X ranch. The trail provides excellent views.

GROTTO TRAIL - Length: 1.6 miles each way. Elevation change: 500 feet. The trail traverses the hillsides and West Fork of the Arroyo Sequit. The Grotto is below a small waterfall.