About Solstice Canyon Falls
Solstice Canyon Falls (also called Roberts Ranch Falls) is a tiny 30ft waterfall in the coastal Santa Monica Mountains.
This was one of the easier waterfalls to visit. It was so easy, in fact, that we had enough confidence to bring our daughter here multiple times (once as early as three or four months old).
I think the most challenging thing about it might be trying to find a parking spot, especially if you got a late start on the weekend (like we did on our last few visits).
Julie and I have done this hike at least four times, but there was a gap of about 7 or 8 years between our most recent visits and our very first time here, I believe. That said, it didn’t seem like the trail had changed much over those years.
The Solstice Canyon Stroll
We say this was one of the easier hikes even though it involved walking around 2 miles round-trip from the official car park.
That said, you might have to add an additional half-mile or so each way if you have to park in one of the overflow spaces or pullouts.
That’s because most of the walk was flat and on pavement. The hikes felt really more like a stroll, and that allowed us to pay attention to the surroundings, where we got a sense of the tug-of-war Mother Nature has with developers and homeowners.
There was evidence of fires that had run through this canyon in the past (not unsual in the Santa Monica Mountains), but at the same time, we witnessed expensive homes perched atop the ridges overlooking this canyon.
Sometimes we wondered if these homes were going to survive the next fire that would come through here. And in between all that, we managed to see lots of blooming wildflowers on the canyon slopes as well as right besides the mostly paved trail.
At about the half-way point, there was Keller House, which was a hunting abode built of tin and stone (in an attempt to thwart destruction by fire) by Henry Keller.
Over the years, even this structure eventually succumbed to fire despite the more fireproof design, and only the supports stood now. A bridge that went straight to the front of the house was closed.
However, the road/trail swung around a sturdy concrete bridge towards the backside of the house where we took a closer look.
Beyond the Henry Keller hunting house, the trail kind of split up beyond the bridge.
At first, we weren’t sure if we were going the right way, but we eventually figured out that these trails converged later on so as long as we kept heading in the same general direction upstream, we were fine.
The path nearest the stream actually crossed it twice in easy boulder hops. But the leftmost path climbed a bit before descending back to where the trails joined up once again.
The latter path was probably where the well-developed almost-concrete path persisted, but it undulated a bit more than the lower path, and I’d imagine it was noticeably longer as well. I’d imagine that undulating paved path was meant more for vehicles as opposed to foot traffic.
At the end of the main trail, we saw what was left of the home of Fred Roberts who once made his fortune off the Roberts Public Market grocery chain (apparently it flourished before our time).
The home was designed by an African American architect Paul R. Williams who was directed to put all sorts of fireproof features into the design of the home since Roberts encountered many fires here. But it was ultimately destroyed in 1982 after Roberts’ death when the property was no longer maintained.
Around Solstice Canyon Falls
Right behind the remnants of the home was the Solstice Canyon Falls.
Given the proximity of the falls to the remnants of the home, it made us wonder whether this was like a private waterfall to the Roberts’.
The path did get a little rough around the falls so I’m sure you’d have to keep an eye out on the kids who may not be cognizant of the mild drop-off hazard here. Even Julie and I were nervous about carrying our daughter right up to the falls when she was barely four months old.
On the opposite side of the stream, we noticed some primitive paths (which were just as rocky and rough) going by some chimney-looking remnant. This afforded us an unusual view of the falls and the usually busy viewing area down below.
We saw people continue higher up the trail, but we had never gone past the falls so we can’t say anything more about what would be up there.
The 30ft diminutive waterfall didn’t impress jaded waterfallers like us, but the well-developed path and infrastructure devoted to this area kind of made us scratch our heads (especially for a place that didn’t charge a fee as of Spring 2010 and prior) as to how and why this was the case.
That was when we figured out that this trail was probably once a driveway leading to the former home of Fred Roberts (thus possibly explaining why Solstice Canyon Falls was also referred to as Roberts Ranch Falls).
On one of our more recent visits, Julie and I actually took our baby daughter to the falls in a stroller.
At the time, this seemed like a pretty straightforward way of introducing our daughter to waterfalling, but we realized the hard way that the stroller we used was probably ill-equipped. We saw other people pushing joggers with their bicycle wheels, which were probably more appropriate.
Thus, we might have abused our urban stroller thanks to the presence of mud and some of the rougher parts of the trail.
Once we got to the burned Roberts home, we had to leave the stroller behind in order to reach the waterfall. That was where the trail narrowed (with minor dropoffs) while traversing steps.
Finally, something that surprised both Julie and I on a Labor Day visit here in 2012 (which was a very dry year) was that Solstice Canyon Falls was still flowing even this late into the Summer!
While the flow wasn’t impressive, it did have significant enough flow to be able to tell it was a waterfall. It also made us wonder whether this could be counted as another one of the few year year-round waterfalls in Southern California!
Authorities
Solstice Canyon Falls resides in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. For information or inquiries about this area as well as current conditions, visit the NPS website.
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