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 by Connie Cody and Gwynneth Hyndman
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| The Santa Ynez Valley would be a very different place without the two lofty mountain ranges that enclose the valley’s gentle hills and meadows. The range on the southern rim of the valley, separating us from a view of the Pacific Ocean, is the narrow, single-crested Santa Ynez Mountain range — a rare east-west traverse row of peaks, some measuring over 4,000 feet. But the big mountain range encircling the valley, to the north and east, is the San Rafael Range, called a “multi-crested complex of mountains” by geologists—meaning these mountains are not a narrow, easy-to-drive-over range like the Santa Ynez Mountains, but that the range incorporates crest, after crest after crest of various sized additional ranges, all clumped together. Anyone who has hiked the backcountry can attest to the seemingly endless series of mountain ranges that lay behind the one dimensional view of the range we see from the valley. It is this particular feature which probably kept the San Rafael Mountains from being settled by pioneers. Early historians refer to the San Rafaels as being “a wild and impossibly steep series of uninhabitable mountains”. Consequently, the area became a forest preserve around the turn of the century, and has since been designated a protected National Forest and Wilderness Area. The San Rafael Range is a particularly long range of mountains—surrounding most of the north and north-eastern Santa Ynez Valley; this range is also known as the highest and southernmost of the California Coast Ranges. Nestled between the Sierra Madres to its north (another “single-crested range) and the Santa Ynez mountains to the south, the San Rafael Range merges with both ranges in the east — in the vicinity of Ojai—making it impossible for geologists to identify boundaries of the different ranges in that area. Although most of the high peaks in the San Rafaels are within the valley’s viewshed—Big Pine Mountain at 6,828 ft and McKinley Mountain at 6,182 ft. being two of the tallest— the western end of the San Rafael Range is most familiar to locals—that part of the mountain range nearest to the towns Los Olivos and Santa Ynez, where Grass Mountain, Zaca Peak and Figueroa Mountain are clearly in view. The Figueroa Mountain name is well known throughout Santa Barbara County — though this is due mostly to the 30 plus mile road loop which begins in Los Olivos, traverses a part of the San Rafael mountains and returns to the valley by merging with Happy Canyon Road at Cachuma Saddle. City-dwellers drive Figueroa Mountain Road to “see the mountains”, view wildflowers in season and to drive by Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch. However well-known its name may be, few can identify Figueroa Mountain’s profile, a broad, rolling, two-knobbed summit, unlike it’s more distinct pyramid-peaked neighbors —Zaca Peak, Ranger Peak and Grass Mountain. Most eyes seem to glide right over Figueroa’s gentle profile, attracted instead to the pointy peaks. Grass Mountain seems to be the local favorite, with its pointy peak rising directly above lower Figueroa Mountain Road it’s understandable that newcomers end up believing Grass Mountain is Figueroa Mountain. Grass Mountain is the hands-down focal point favorite for the thousands of paintings inspired by the San Rafael Range over the years. But Figueroa’s greatest indignation may have happened around six years ago when a large photo of Grass Mountain splashed across the front page of the Santa Barbara News Press was identified as Figueroa Mountain. |
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Copyright 2004, Inside Santa Ynez Valley Magazine, All Rights Reserved |
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