Best Mountain Bike trails in Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara has some terrific mountain biking trails for both down hill and cross-country.  If you’re looking for pure down hill Tunnel Trail is as exhilarating as Santa Barbara has to offer.  You just need to make your way up to the top of El Camino Cielo.   You can ride your bike up the road if you’re looking for a workout or get dropped off.  From the top you can also go down Cold Springs and Romero Canyon.  The top section of Romero Canyon is very loose and a bit hairy; if you want to skip that section you can take the fire road 1.7 miles down till it meets the single track again.  The second half of the trail has more embedded rock with some pretty fast fun sections.

My favorite all around ride is riding up Inspiration Point and then down Jesusita trail.  There are a couple spots going up you’ll have to carry the bike unless your just amazing.  There are quite a few hikers going up as well.  Jesusita trail, especially the top section has very few hikers and is a flowy fun trail for a nice five to six mile downhill run.  If you’re looking for a good climb with a mix of some down hill I’d go back to Romero.  You can climb the fire road for 4 miles and then go down the two-mile downhill single track.  The first mile of climbing is pretty tough; if you make it past that the remaining three miles are much easier.

We have quite a few cross country bikes for rent that can easily take you up and down any of the trails in Santa Barbara or if you’re looking for a guided tour we can help with that as well.  Check out www.SBFitTours.com if you’re interested.