A surge of visitors to hot springs in the hills near Santa Barbara led to complaints from neighbors — and now to a plan for trail closures and parking restrictions on days of high fire danger.
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Santa Barbara County’s supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday, March 4, to institute a pilot program concerning Montecito Hot Springs.
“Over the past several years,” said an agenda letter from Supervisor Roy Lee, “the Hot Springs Trail in Montecito has seen a dramatic increase in visitors, particularly driven by social media exposure. What was once a quiet trail used by locals has become a high-traffic destination, attracting tourists from outside the area.”
The letter goes on to speak of “safety concerns, particularly regarding fire risk, emergency response challenges, and traffic congestion.”
The pilot program proposed by Lee would develop a protocol of parking restrictions and trail closures on days the area is under a red flag warning issued by the National Weather Service. The warning indicates heightened risk of wildfire, usually because of dry and windy weather. The proposal estimates there will be 20 such days this year.
The plan also seeks enforcement against “illegal watershed modification” — specifically, the rebuilding of soaking pools whose walls have been washed away during heavy rain.
Montecito Hot Springs, in Los Padres National Forest, is one of several natural soaking and swimming areas in California that have seen a recent boom in visitors because of social media attention, particularly during the COVID pandemic when indoor entertainment was shut down.
Other areas whose popularity contributed to problems include:
• Miracle Hot Springs, on the Kern River. It was closed last year by the Forest Service after a second person was found dead in a tub.
• Yankee Jim swimming hole, on the North Fork American River. Parking was banned by state parks officials in July 2020 after 313 vehicles were counted along a road that had space for 12 cars.
• Candy Rock swimming hole, on the North Fork Stanislaus River. The sheriff issued a warning in 2022 after six people had to be rescued in two weeks.
