Hiking in OC-2017

Hiking in the O.C (Orange County) 2017

 

Welcome back everyone! This is the latest edition of my posts, mainly centered on Travel, History or Leadership. This particularly post comes under the 'Travel' heading although not in the same sense as previous posts.

 

 

This post provides a sample of some of the hikes available in the O.C. I tend to do a lot of walking, mainly to try to keep in some semblance of shape plus I just like to get out and see new places and accomplish something, even if it means just making it to the top of a hill!

 

 

Just one thing...this is just an intro into what's available. I would suggest purchasing a guide book for more detail...I went with 'Afoot and Afield-Orange County, A comprehensive hiking guide'. I picked up my copy for something like $8 on Amazon, well worth the money.

 

 

So, let's start...the shocking news is that the O.C is full of hiking paths/trails of varying degrees of difficulty across around 18 different areas ranging from the coast to the Santa Ana Mountains. The county has also been able to integrate hiking trails within largely urban areas. For example, within a quarter mile of where I'm staying in Irvine is the San Diego Creek trail. The trail makes up part of the 'Mountains to Sea' trail that extends from Upper Newport Bay to Santiao Oaks Regional Park.

 

The county uses regional parks for hiking centers...generally really nice with washrooms, water and often camping facilities.

 

 

Heading Southwest along the Creek eventually, after 4-5 miles, takes you to Upper Newport Bay. Be forewarned, the San Diego Creek Trail isn't much to look at, The trail tends to be, mainly, flood control with a lot of cement and boulders placed to control flash flooding....so, you get some of this.

 

...and a bit of this.

 However, it serves a purpose and gets you to the Bay where there's a wildlife preserve and some very pretty views.

 

 

 

There's a nice lookout point just at the start of the back bay loop...perfect for wildlife spotting.

 

Once you are at the coast you can take advantage of the different types of hikes/walks available. I would suggest heading south along the coast from Back Bay and go to Crystal Cove State park. The park starts at Corona Del Mar, a nice little town which still retains some of it's 30's-50's feel with boutiques and even a Brit pub (although very pricey and not really that British :-) ). Once at the start of the park you have two choices...you can follow the cliff path through the park OR you can walk down to the beach and follow it approximately 4 miles to Abalone Point. The beach starts out rock but becomes very sand about 2.5 to 3 miles in...the views of the coast are stunning, definitely recommend this hike,

 

 

If you continue South'ish along the coast towards Abalone point you'll pass a number of old cottages and homes propped up against the hills. The Los Trancos area has an historic district where you can stop for a bite at either the Beachcomber café or the shake shack.

If you continue to Moro beach you'll find an underpass that allows you to access El Moro canyon which has a number of short, but steep, hiking paths (I've not done any yet, will update the post when I have :-) ). The area is also easily accessible by car with plenty of parking and picnic facilities available for hikers.

For those who want a little bit of a different sort of hike then there's plenty of choice. Most of the paths in the O.C, other than the urban paths like San Diego creek, tend to be a combination of semi-arid brush and forest. That means it will be hot, dry and dusty and there'll be a lack of shade in many areas. The point here is that most hikes require sensible footwear (trainers work in many of the easy to moderate trails but can be slippery on rocks and when crossing streams), plenty of water and sunscreen (especially March-late September).

The first area that we tried was Whiting Ranch. The ranch is located in Lake Forest, which is about 10 miles from Irvine. As with many such areas, there's parking available (either at start of Borrego canyon-across from market place or Glen Ranch) for $3 per day but no ranger station or facilities other than a water fountain. The park is 1500 acres with over 17 miles of trails. We started at Borrego and hiked to the end of Red Rock canyon (1240 feet) with a few short detours. The trail is slightly odd in that Borrego canyon winds through a housing area (on the hills over looking the canyon) before opening up into a 'wilderness'. The trails are well marked and are rated by difficulty.

 

 One thing to keep in mind. Despite the fact that the trails are in O.C there's still an abundance of wildlife. We usually see a lot of woodpeckers, herons, and lizards...and occasionally one of these..

 

 ...a harmless gopher snake. However, there are rattlesnakes in most parks, so keep an eye out. There are also cougars but, fortunately we've not seen any of those yet.

A similar park, but a bit bigger and more open, is Aliso and Wood canyons wilderness parks which is just off Alicia Parkway and across from Laguna Niguel. We followed Alisio Creek to the Wood canyon trail head then headed North. We branched off to the left, after about 1.5 miles, to the dripping cave trail. The cave was home to bandits in the 1800's and still shows the marks of their occupation in the cave roof. We followed the trail to where it branches off between the Car Wreck trail and Mathis Canyon trails. We took the Mathis canyon trail, rated moderate to difficult, up to the West Ridge trail. The trail itself is wide, the difficulty is the steepness and the lack of shade...oppressive in 25c weather.

We managed to make it to the West Ridge trail, turned right and hiked another couple of miles to the Lynx trail, rated difficult due to steep decline and narrow path (Bikes are banned), following it to the Wood Canyon trail which lead back to Wood canyon then to Alisio creek.

 



 

Dripping Cave....

 

 

 

The entire hike of 12 miles took us approximately 4 hours.

 

Note: Mountain bikes and dogs are allowed on most trails..bikers tend to go fast without regard for hikers so keep on the right and keep your eyes open.

 

 

Note: The main parking lot has toilets but no water fountains, come prepared with adequate water supplies.

 

Another nice park is Casper Wilderness Park. The park is similar to Alisio with the exception of there being a very good ranger presence (entry fee of $5) with ample parking, toilets (the cleanest I've ever seen at a recreational area), camping and ample water. The park is some 8000 acres, so it isn't small, with a number of longer trails.

 

We parked near the old windmill which was 1/4 mile from the trailhead. We took the Bell Canyon Trail for approximately 1.5 miles to the Oso Trail then took a right where the trail T-junctioned. To get to the junction, we had to cross a few streams which was a bit difficult for my partner as she was wearing trainers and the rocks were slippery. We then hiked up a rather steep incline to the East Ridge trail. The hike up was rated moderate and that isn't a lie....seemed like it was almost straight up!

 

We managed to make it to the top to some fabulous views of the valleys on either side. A two mile hike brought us to the Quail Run trail, a short drop, that takes us back to the trailhead. The entire hike was approximately 6 miles, taking us around 2.25 hours. The difficulty was that there wasn't much shade on the trails that we took and it was hot the day we went...good job we took enough water!



 

 

 

 

I'd like to close by mentioning that O.C, and SoCal in general, are well suited for walkers. Not only can you hit the trails like those mentioned above but you can, literally, walk from one city to another following the coast on the beach. For example, we walked the 11 miles from Seal Beach to Long Beach. Other than the initial first few miles which are through urban areas the majority of the walk is along the beach.

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The beauty of such walks is that you get to see sites like the Queen Mary at the end of the walk, and maybe a cold one.

 

 

 

 

I hope this motivates you to get out and about more...I'll add more trails as I do them.



Zion National park, Utah

Hi everyone, over 4500 views of this blog now...incredible!!!

This post is just a quick summary of a few days spent in Zion National park, Utah.

Fist of all, as a surprise to most of my British friends visiting Las Vegas, there's actually beautiful and interesting things to do outside of the Strip (besides the Grand Canyon). :-)   Zion is one of those places, it's a national park about 2.5 hours from Vegas. Actually, there's a number of parks within easy driving from the city and that includes Red Rock (25 minutes from the city), Valley of Fire (about 45 minutes) and Death Valley (a couple hours) to name a few.

To get to Zion, just head Northeast along US15. You'll drive through Nevada and parts of Arizona before heading into the South western corner of Utah via the Virgin River Canyon. The canyon is itself pretty impressive, cutting through the mountains whilst rising to over 6000 feet. However, the goal is Zion, so keep on going!

I've included a map of the park, apologies for the quality.

The main purpose of the map is to show that the park is made up of two major sections. The first section is to the Northwest and is comprised of the Kolob canyons. The canyons are very much like mini Zion canyons with very similar geology. For me the biggest attraction is that there are less tourists. The downside is that the scenery, while beautiful, doesn't rival that of Zion.

As with the rest of the park, there are a variety of trails to choose from and a number of websites that can help you decide. Personally, I used the following website as it provided a good synopsis of the trails, basic maps and guidance for those visiting.

Joe's guide to Zion national Park

Given that we had a limited amount of time in the park (24 hours from time of arrival to departure) and were not, by any stretch of the imagination, experienced hikers. We decided on an 'easy' trail to begin with, the 'Taylor Creek trail'. The trailhead is approximately 2 miles from the Kolob Canyon Ranger Station and gives you three options (North, Middle and South forks). We decided upon the middle fork which is estimated to be a 5 mile round trip (although, by my calculations it was slightly longer but that could be due to a few 'diversions).

The hike started at 0930 which, with hindsight, was pretty poor planning on my part. Despite it being the 9th of September and being at over 6000ft it was still very hot (easily 30c by mid-hike) but at least the views were very nice...

A little trail information: The trail is doable in hiking shoes or running shoes (my choice for this hike). I actually saw a young woman in sandals but wouldn't recommend them. The trail is also well marked with only a few spots that require any real effort. There are a few creeks to cross which didn't present a challenge (although, I would expect them to be a bit deeper during Spring and Fall.

The decision point between the three forks is near the Larson cabin which is a cultural site dating back over 100 years.

We headed East towards the ultimate goal of the hike which is the Double Arch Alcove. One of the nice things about the trail is that a lot of the walking is through the forest which offers respite from the heat.

We managed to make it to the actual arch in well under 2 hours which was good considering the number of stops that we took to take photos and to enjoy the scenery.

Made it!!!!!

Okay, hike over...drive to Springdale by following US15 Southwest to US9 then head east to Springdale. Now, Springdale is 180 degrees out from kolob. Think the South rim of the Grand Canyon but a bit classier. The 'town' has a number of nice places to stay with fantastic views and features but you will pay for it, obviously.

Apologies for the blatant advertising here... :-)

I'd suggest eating at 'jack's' as the food was amazing, relatively inexpensive and they had a reasonable selection of beers, some locally produced, which is a key for me.

Just a few points about the Eastern part of the park...first of all, unless you enter the park early (as in before 8am) then forget about parking. Although the park signs say that parking is unavailable after 10am, that's not even close. Most visitors don't heed the advice and try to drive in to hike late...Don't do it! The park offers shuttle service which picks up at a number of stops before and in the park, leave your car along the road (or in the hotel) and get the shuttle.


As with the rest of the park, there are a number of great options for hikes. If time isn't a problem then I'd suggest going for some of the trails within the park such as the emerald pools trail. However, the downside of those trails is that they are usually busy...I prefer a bit of quiet so opted for one of the few trails that started at the Visitors center in Springdale. The trail that we decided upon was the 'Watchman Trail' which included a shorter 'Loop' at the end. As with many of the park trails, this one was an out and back. It is rated as 'moderate' due to the climb and the sheer drops along parts of the trail. The trail itself was a bit shorter than the 'Taylor Creek trail', only about 1-1.5 miles each way not including the extra .25-.5 mile loop section.

The trail climbs up through a canyon and winds around to a scenic overlook. I would suggest starting early (as soon as the sun rises) to avoid the heat and the 'busy' period. The views with the sun rising, whilst not on par with some of the more popular trails, are still stunning and worth the less than 2 hours roundtrip.

Okay, that's it for today. keep an eye on future posts as have a few other trips planned in the next few months.