Pacific Trails California by UTMB (HOKA)

There are races that take place in places everyone knows about, and there are the HOKA Pacific Trails California by UTMB®, which happens in a place no one was ever allowed to visit 🤫. Welcome to the Rancho San Fernando Rey, a private ranch of more than 12,000 hectares tucked in the Santa Ynez Valley, in the heart of the Santa Barbara County in Southern California, whose doors have remained closed to the public for ages, until a trail race was deemed a good enough reason to finally open them 🏃. You don't argue with people in trail shoes 😏.

The race is still very young, and it already has a founding anecdote worthy of telling 😇. Announced in July 2025and integrated into the UTMB World Series circuit from its creation, the inaugural edition is scheduled for the 22 and 23 November 2025. A few days before race day, an atmospheric river (the name meteorologists give to the corridors of water vapor from the Pacific dumping on California like someone tipped the ocean 🌧️) hits the ranch and drops 33 centimeters of rain in one weekend, a level of precipitation unprecedented on the property since 1965. The trails turn into rivers, access becomes impassable, and the organization cancels the race before the first runner has even tied their laces 😮. Zero finishers for the inaugural edition, which gives it an almost involuntary but undeniably romantic myth status (if you want 😜). The next edition is planned for November, and we dare to hope California weather has learned its lesson ☀️. The land's story, though, goes back much further than all that. The Rancho San Fernando Rey is a property inherited from the era of Spanish and then Mexican land grants, traversed by centuries of human presence before becoming the active ranch it is today, with its hundred-year-old wagon roads, cattle roaming freely without race bibs 🐄, and preserved landscapes that the decades haven’t managed to spoil 🌿. The Santa Ynez Valley is also the ancestral land of the ChumashChumash, whose presence on these lands goes back millennia... Long before anyone thought of laying out trail courses and selling energy gels at the entrance. 🦵.

The 50K course covers 51 km with 1,550 meters of positive elevation 📐 following a point-to-point route that first runs along old ranch trails and wagon roads (the same ones generations of cowboys used, who didn’t have trail poles to help them 🤠) before plunging into canyons lined with oak trees and climbing up ridges from which the view extends to the Cachuma Lake and the surrounding valleys 🛶. At the heart of the ranch stands the Loma Alta Mountain which rises to 835 meters, the high point of the route from which the landscape unfolds in all directions with a generosity seldom found on an urban course. The terrain traverses a sequence of ecosystems characteristic of the California coast: the Blue Oak 🌳, coastal prairies, cliffs that hint at the distant ocean, olive groves, and ford crossings in the Santa Ynez River winding through the property 💧. No kilometer really resembles the one before, which is both a mark of a beautiful route and a great excuse to stay attentive until the end 😉. The 25K offers 25 km with 650 meters of positive elevation on a similarly point-to-point format 🧭, with long, steady climbs and descents into canyons of oaks that almost make you forget your legs burn. The two races share the same crossing logic: you move across new terrain every kilometer, never passing the same spot twice! 🏜️

The start and finish are at the basecamp, set in an old open-sided barn on the ranch, whose rustic atmosphere pleasantly contrasts with technical bibs and the latest GPS watches ⌚️. To protect the property’s fragile ecosystem, cars don’t access the ranch: runners reach the start by shuttle from Solvang 🚌, a neighboring town whose Danish-inspired architecture reminds us this territory has been settled by waves of varied cultures: Chumash, Spaniards, Mexicans, Americans, and apparently a few Danes 🇩🇰.

On the qualification side, the Pacific Trails California is part of the UTMB World Series competition, which has concrete implications for runners building a profile on the international circuit 🌍. The 3 top men and 3 top women of the 50K earn a direct qualification for the OCC in Chamonix, while all finishers of the 50K collect 2 Running Stones and those of the 25K collect 1 🪨. These stones accumulate year after year and feed a lottery dossier for the circuit’s flagship races: a way of saying that running in the California vineyards in November can eventually lead to snowier alpine adventures 🏔️.

The Santa Ynez Valley deserves a moment’s mention on its own, independent of the race. It is a renowned wine region, especially for its Pinot Noir and its Chardonnay, made famous by the 2004 film Sideways. If you haven’t seen the movie, it’s a wine-tasting road trip that probably sold more Pinot Noir than any marketing campaign 🎬. Santa Barbara, just 20 minutes south, is a seaside town with white Spanish-style architecture tucked between mountains and the Pacific Ocean 🌊, full of restaurants, markets and that afternoon light that makes many people want to settle there forever 🏖️. For a race that has yet to officially happen, the Pacific Trails California by UTMB® has already achieved something rather rare: building a strong identity around an exceptional terrain, a centuries-long story, and an inaugural edition canceled by historic rains that ultimately made the ranch even more mythical 🌦️.

Doesn’t that sound dreamy to any trail runner? Even on a winter day you’ll beCalifornia Dreamin' 💭.