Santa Paula Canyon (Last Chance) - 21W11 / 21W09

About this campground

Santa Paula Canyon (Last Chance Trail) (21W11 & 21W09) PARTIAL WILDERNESS Length: 6.0 miles to Jackson Hole Difficulty: moderate to Jackson Hole and difficult to north end Park in either of two dirt parking lots off Highway 150 adjacent to the entrance of Thomas Aquinas College. Walk up the college road. Please respect signs to stay on road and do not cut across open areas of campus. The road eventually splits off to the right from the college and continues through a ranch and oil well site. Approximately 1.3 miles from the highway and after the oil wells, the route enters dense  sycamore and alder stands along the creekbottom. During the winter floods of 2005, much of the trail and road was eliminated due to high waters. Since this trail receives heavy use on weekends, we recommend hiking it on a weekday. The main attractions are a narrow gorge and beautiful waterfalls that cascade into deep pools of water. Be very careful when hiking this trail due to the many steep drop-offs and high cliffs. After 3.4 miles, the trail passes Big Cone Camp that has campsites set in a shady grove of big cone Douglas-fir with year-round water close by. A great alternative less then a mile further up the trail is Cross Camp. This camp offers secluded, nicely arranged campsites on Santa Paula Creek (year-round water).  At 1.8 miles from Cross Camp a trail turns off to the right and drops down to Jackson Camp. The main trail continues another 0.2 miles to Jackson Hole. For the adventurous, an unmaintained trail picks up at 0.4 miles up-canyon from Jackson Hole and continues on to Last Chance Camp and Topatopa Mountains. The trail is not passable to stock beyond Big Cone Camp.