This Trail is a County of Santa Barbara Designated Landmark
For thousands of years, the Chumash peoples of the Shuku village at today’s Rincon Point traveled up Rincon Creek toward Divide Peak. From there they could travel west to hunting, foraging, and fishing areas along the Santa Ynez River or east to the sacred, healing hot springs along Matilija Creek. Shuku village was dubbed Rancheria San Mateo by the Spanish circa 1786, and the village site was known as El Rincon when it was included in a Mexican Land Grant of the same name in 1835.
Around the turn of the 20th century, the newly minted United States Forest Reserve system rebuilt the trail, which then began behind the famous stagecoach stop and tourist hotel named Shephard’s Inn. The Shephard family organized horseback excursions along the trail for their guests.
In 1907, the rangers of the Santa Barbara Reserve connected the Rincon Trail to the newly built Ocean View Trail, which commanded superb views of the mountains and sea and led to Matilija Springs. Col. Willis N. Slosson, Reserve Supervisor, called it the “Grandest Scenic Route in the Entire World.” In 1909, part of the Rincon Trail was reconstructed as a fire break.
After WWI, mentions of the Rincon Trail diminished in newspapers, but renewed interest in hiking by the Sierra Club and others in the 1950s and ‘60s brought it back to the forefront. Shepard’s Inn had gone out of business, and the property then belonged to a private homeowner. Nevertheless, in 1952, the Boy Scouts of Troop No. 1 hiked up Rincon Creek to repair the trail so pack animals carrying fish to restock the streams could negotiate the terrain. Sierra Club hikes brought back news that “Rincon Canyon is like a botanic garden with its overhanging rocks, trout pools and wildflowers.” People were getting out of their cars to hike in nature, and they rediscovered its power to heal and refresh. (Hattie Beresford)
(Sources: Contemporary newspapers; Michael Redmon’s “Shepard’s Inn”; “Shepards Inn by Jim Campos, 19 November 2020, Coastviewnews.com; “My Chumash Ancestral Legacy,” by Julie Tumamait-Stenslie, Ojai Valley Museum, https://ojaihistory.com/my-chumash-ancestral-legacy/)
Note: The Rincon Trail trailhead is on private property and not open to the public. The historic trail is not currently maintained by the U.S. Forest Service.