Pacific Trails California by UTMB (HOKA) 2026

There are races that take place in spots everyone knows, and then there’s the HOKA Pacific Trails California by UTMB®, which unfolds in a place no one had ever been allowed to visit 🤫. Welcome to Rancho San Fernando Rey, a private ranch spanning more than 12,000 hectares nestled in the Santa Ynez Valley, in the heart of Santa Barbara County in Southern California, whose gates had always been closed to the public—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 brand-new, and it already has a founding anecdote worth telling 😇. Announced in July 2025 and, from its very creation, integrated into the UTMB World Series circuit, the inaugural edition was scheduled for November 22 and 23, 2025. A few days before the start, an atmospheric river (the name meteorologists give to corridors of water vapor coming from the Pacific that pour over California like someone tipped the ocean over 🌧️) slams into the ranch and drops 33 centimeters of rain in a single weekend, a precipitation level unseen on the property since 1965. The trails turn into rivers, access roads become impassable, and the organization cancels the race before the first runner even has time to tie their laces 😮. Zero finishers for the inaugural edition, giving it the status of a slightly accidental but undeniably romantic myth (if you want 😜). The next edition is scheduled for the month of November, and we dare hope California’s weather learned its lesson ☀️. The land’s history, meanwhile, goes back far beyond all that. Rancho San Fernando Rey is an estate inherited from the era of Spanish and then Mexican land grants, shaped by centuries of human presence before becoming the working ranch it is today—with its century-old wagon tracks, its herds going about their business without caring about bib numbers 🐄, and preserved landscapes that decades haven’t managed to spoil 🌿. The Santa Ynez Valley is also the ancestral land of the Chumash tribe, whose presence on these lands goes back millennia... long before anyone thought of laying out trail routes there and selling energy gels at the entrance. 🦵.

The 50K course covers 51 km with 1,550 meters of elevation gain 📐 on a point-to-point route that first follows old ranch roads and wagon tracks (the very same ones used by generations of cowboys who, for their part, didn’t have trail poles to help them 🤠) before dropping into oak-lined canyons and climbing back onto ridgelines where the view stretches all the way to Lake Cachuma and the surrounding valleys 🛶. At the center of the property stands Loma Alta Mountain, topping out at 835 meters, the high point of the route, around which the landscape unfurls in every direction with a generosity you rarely find on an urban course. The terrain crosses a succession of ecosystems typical of the California coast: Blue Oak 🌳, coastal grasslands, cliffs that hint at the ocean in the distance, olive groves, and river crossings in the Santa Ynez River that snakes through the property 💧. No kilometer really looks like the one before, which is both the hallmark of a beautiful course and an excellent excuse to stay alert all the way to the end 😉. The 25K offers 25 km with 650 meters of elevation gain in a point-to-point format as well 🧭, with long, gradual climbs and descents into oak canyons that almost make you forget your legs are burning. Both races share the same traverse logic: you move through new terrain every kilometer, never passing through the same place twice! 🏜️

The start and finish take place at the basecamp, set up in an old open ranch barn, whose rustic atmosphere contrasts pleasantly with technical bibs and cutting-edge GPS watches ⌚️. To preserve the property’s fragile ecosystem, private cars are not allowed onto the ranch: runners reach the start by shuttle from Solvang 🚌, a nearby town whose architecture is entirely inspired by Danish style and whose very existence in this corner of California is a reminder that this territory has been populated by waves of varied cultures: from the Chumash to the Spanish to the Mexicans, the Americans, and apparently a few Danes too 🇩🇰.

On the qualifications side, Pacific Trails California is part of the UTMB World Series, which has concrete implications for runners building a résumé on the international circuit 🌍. The top 3 men and top 3 women in the 50K earn a direct qualification for the OCC in Chamonix, while all 50K finishers collect 2 Running Stones and 25K finishers collect 1 🪨. These stones add up from one edition to the next and help feed a lottery entry file for the circuit’s flagship races worldwide: a way of saying that running through California’s vineyards in November can, in time, lead to much snowier alpine pastures 🏔️.

The Santa Ynez Valley also deserves a moment in the spotlight, independently of the race. It’s a renowned wine region, notably for its Pinot Noir and its Chardonnay, made famous far beyond California’s borders by the 2004 film Sideways 🍷. If you don’t know the film, it’s an oenological road trip that probably sold more Pinot Noir than any marketing campaign 🎬. Santa Barbara, 20 minutes to the south, is a seaside town of white Spanish architecture set between the mountains and the Pacific Ocean 🌊, with its restaurants, its markets, and that late-afternoon quality of light that explains why so many people have settled there for good 🏖️. For a race that, officially, has not yet taken place, Pacific Trails California by UTMB® has already pulled off something quite rare: building a strong identity around an exceptional venue, a history spanning several centuries, and a first edition canceled by historic rains that ultimately made the ranch even more mythical than it already was 🌦️.

It’s the kind of thing that makes any trail runner dream, isn’t it? Even on a winter day you’ll be California Dreamin' 💭.