Ghost Frog Canyon
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| | Difficulty:3B II (v2a2 II) Raps:1+, max ↨15ft
Red Tape: Shuttle:Required 3 min Vehicle:Passenger | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Condition Reports: | 31 Jan 2026
"Great views from the fire road on the approach. After some brush at the drop-in the canyon was a treat to hike down with interesting conglomerate sect |
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| Best season: | Winter to Spring (after rain)
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34.0959, -118.5494
34.0781, -118.5674
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WaterflowIntroduction
A short canyon with fun down climbs and beautiful scenery throughout the entire adventure. Highlight of the canyon is two fun down climbs around/through water falls that could probably be set up as rappels for the less confident climber.
Can easily be combined with quarry canyon (by climbing a ridge back up to the fire road), the main Santa Ynez falls trail and or the beach for a more full day.
Named after a really neat little frog we encountered!!
Approach
Meet up at the SantaYnez Canyon Trail head and leave a shuttle 34.07813, -118.56752.
Then drive (or walk if no shuttle) about 3/4 of a mile and 250 feet of elevation gain up the road to trailer canyon trail head 34.07850, -118.56006. Hike up the trail, a nice fire road hike with sweeping views of the ocean out towards Catalina and eventually over all of LA.
We dropped in at roughly 34.09589, -118.54941.
Descent
Make your way through the brush down to the canyon proper roughly 34.09746, -118.55245. It looks dense, but was pretty easy and short going! Walk along the stream which is full of small waterfalls and interesting rock formations until you get to the first obstacle.
Down Climb/R0: 25 feet (down climb DCR, could probably set up a rap and go down the waterfall proper for the less confident climber)
Continue down creek where the scenery only gets better and we ran into the frog we named this canyon after. Not long beyond this obstacle you will encounter a series of waterfalls cascading into pot holes (5 pools).
R1/Down Climb: 15 feet (off dead tree / likely could be down climbed through some brush DCL)
Drops you to large landing where down canyon you will encounter a log jam down to the first pool. Down climbed using the branches DCL (copied probably set a ran off these for less confident climbers to continue through the next series).
Downclimb through the series of waterfalls cascading their way through the bedrock forming narrows and small pot holes. This down climb is the highlight of the canyon!
Continue down stream which has more fun down climbs and beautiful scenery!
Exit
Some more cool creek walking/down climbing. Follow the stream up down until you intersect with the Santa Ynez canyon trail, and follow that trail out towards your car.