It's been a long time since I visited the Punchbowl in Santa Paula. It's sometimes called the best swimming hole in the state.
Before taking other people to the hole, (or any hike) I always make a test run to see if it's still in good condition, or even open. Today I was scouting out this trail for potential use for a kids' summer camp.
If you've never been, the Punchbowl trail is about 7 miles round trip, on a wide, mostly flat, shadeless, dirt road.
Well, it used to be.
Like always, the trail begins at Thomas Aquinas College. You have to walk through the campus on a paved road. The signs directing hikers are actually new-looking. (I didn't bring a camera, so all pictures today are from the internet, like this one below.)
Once through the campus, things change drastically. You travel by some shacks, some avacado groves, and some oil derricks. And friendly signs like this one, which really encourage you to stay on the trail.
Now in the old days, once past this brush with rural America, you were in very dry mountains, hiking beside a very small creek, on a dry, wide, shadeless dirt road.
Right away, though, I noticed that the trail seemed to be much more shady than I remembered, and I was crossing and recrossing the creek.
At one point, I found myself in the avacado grove and had to backtrack.
Eventually I realized something had really changed. But....I saw tons of graffiti, some mindless, but some were arrows pointing the way. (Sometimes conflicting arrows....) So I knew I was on the right track. I also knew that by following the river, I would eventually get there. I thought I must be really terrible at trail following, though, because I kept hitting dead ends and backtracking.
Now in the past, the trail went up a rise, but this time, it just became narrower, and I was basically just wading up the river, having to boulder hop, then eventually almost climbing over the boulders.
The graffiti began to say things like "Almost there," and "Keep Going."
Definitely, this hike would not be happening with a bunch of kids.
Finally, I reached the spot called Punchbowl. Normally, it is a spot on the river with perhaps 15 swimming holes of various sizes, rope swings, water slides, and very clear water.
Today, though, the pools looked really shallow. A few were dried up entirely. But worst of all, there was graffiti everywhere. It looked like the worst freeway wall you've ever seen, just all paint.
And trash. Bottles. Leftover Taco Bell wrappers. Broken glass.
Punchbowl was trashed.
There has always been a bit of graffiti and trash there, but now there was so much it spoiled the whole thing.
I could not find a picture of the graffiti online, but look at this picture, and multiply the graffiti in this picture by 100 or more.
Anyway, as I left, groups began to arrive. Noisy groups with boom boxes...
I left and was able to find the big wide trail. But only part of it. It soon disappeared and it was back to bushwhacking.
Doing some research when I got home, here is what I learned:
- There were some massive floods in 2005 that washed out the entire canyon, including the dirt road.
- The trail disappeared. The forest service did not have the money to make a new trail or road, so what's there now is just a bunch of handmade trails made by people finding their own way. Hence the multiple trails, dead ends, and general confusion. (Glad it wasn't just me that was confused. Read many online comments about getting lost.)
- These floods also filled in many of the swimming holes with sand, making them shallower.
- The river also changed course after the flood.
- With the dirt road gone, the rangers could no longer drive up in vehicles and remove the graffiti and trash. It began to build. And now it's been 8 years with no cleanup.
I think another factor is the internet. I only learned of Punchbowl by working at a school in Ojai one summer. Entirely word of mouth. There were no guidebooks on the subject, and the internet did not really exist. Now, you can google Punchbowl and get specific directions.
It would be nice if they would spend the money and build a proper trail, then station a guard at the gate and just charge admission, followed by a search for spray cans, etc. Station a couple people at the falls themselves too. Problem solved. Except for the shallower water, but that's nature.
But for now, Punchbowl is a no-go.
