Hiking in Santa Paula Canyon to the Punch Bowls

We're going to be looking out for rock slides. Keep an eye out for deadfalls, trees that have been burned that are still standing. Santa Paula Canyon. We were up here about a year and a half ago during really high flow. We actually hiked beyond the Punch Bowls, which are these beautiful swimming holes and there's natural slides there. We didn't make it to the Punch Bowls. It was too high a flow to slide it. But a year and a half later, here we are. We're going to tackle these amazing natural swimming holes. They're pretty popular. There are a lot of cars at the trailhead today. This area just reopened after the largest wildfire in modern California history. Almost 300,000 acres burned last winter, last December and January. So today on the trail, we're going to be very careful hiking through the burn areas. Santa Paula Punch Bowls, one of the best natural water slides in Southern California. Here we go. So it looks like there's good water flow in the canyon. So that's cool. We got to this first shady spot. I heard that further up because of the fire, there's less shade. Now, when we go through the recently burned fire area, there's three main things that we're going to be looking out for. Rock slides or mud slides. That's why you never want to go in a burned area when there's rain in the forecast. You want to stay out of washes. You want to watch out for mud slides because without the vegetation to hold the water in the earth, mud slides are a lot easier to happen. Same with rock slides, landslides. We're going to keep an eye out for that. We're going to keep an eye out for deadfalls, trees that have been burned that are still standing. The root structure is damaged. They could come over without warning. So we're going to look out for that. We're also going to look out for potholes in the ground that have been covered over with a little bit of debris where roots and stumps were left in the ground. They burned up and now they've left a pothole. So we want to be very delicate. Watch our footsteps in a burned area so we don't get our legs stuck in a pothole, possibly break our leg. So those are the three main things you want to keep an eye out for if you're ever hiking through a recently burned area. Most of the time after a fire, the area is going to be closed down for a period of time. This has only been open for a few months now since the fire. So not a lot of trip reports have happened. So I've heard it's very easy to lose the trail. Also, we've got to pay attention to our navigation, our GPS, make sure we're following the water, going in the right direction. Santa Paula Punchbowls. I'm getting sweaty already. I'm ready to jump in. Let's go. So it's good to see there's a lot of new secondary growth happening despite the fire. A lot of the vegetation's coming back. A lot of poison oak down by the water. So definitely want to keep an eye out for that as well as usual. The dry June and May that we've had, definitely want to make sure you pay attention to fire restrictions in this and all national parks and forests and any wilderness areas. If it says no campfires, no camping stoves, definitely heed those warnings, please. It could save your life. It could save people their homes. Definitely don't want to start a gigantic fire like this one. So be safe out there. So there's two trails to get to the Punchbowls. There's one on the left side of the stream and there used to be one on the right side of the stream too, which is the one we took last time we were up here a year and a half ago. But since the fire and then the mudslide after the fire, I've heard the trail on the right side of the stream is in bad shape. Pretty much washed out. You can't find the trail. Gotta be careful. Rock slides, loose rock. It looks like this trail on the left side of the stream is still pretty much intact. So we made it to the first Punchbowl here and there's two more beyond this one. So we're gonna go check out the second one and then the third one is actually where the natural slide is. So from the first pool, we're gonna go up the right side to try to get to the second pool. So the crazy thing is, when we were here a year and a half ago, we actually made it to this spot, which is the second Punchbowl. We didn't even realize these were the Punchbowls because the flow was so huge, you couldn't make out the Punchbowls. They were totally washed out. So about a year and a half ago last winter, or the winter before last, we got all that rain and there was one period we got three weeks straight of rain when we were up here. The flow was raging. You could not swim in the Punchbowls and we kept going up the creek because we thought we hadn't got to the Punchbowls yet. Probably go from up here for sure. So we're at the second Punchbowl. There was a bunch of people at the first one. There's nobody up at the second one. About to do my first depth check so we can hit off some of these sweet jumps on the side here. It's a little chilly, but not too bad. Hey. So the beautiful second Punchbowl up here, some nice jumps. Right now it's about six and a half feet, seven and a half feet at the deepest part, but the deepest part is also the narrowest part here. So you got to be real careful. Some sweet jumps here on both sides, crystal clear water, little bit of algae grown, but the water is still beautiful and clear. So now we're going to head up and try to hit the third Punchbowl, which has the awesome natural water slide. So this day's not done yet. One more Punchbowl to check out. So that's it for the Santa Paula Punchbowls in Santa Paula Canyon. Everyone get out there, find your own adventure. Have a great summer, but always be infamous. We're headed to Santa Paula. Infamous.